In wake of ship collisions, Navy revamps surface officer training in San Diego
By Andrew Dyer
July 17, 2021 6 AM PT
SAN DIEGO —
In the four years since two deadly ship collisions rocked the U.S. Navy, the service has been looking for ways to address problems in the fleet that its own investigators said contributed to the deaths of 17 sailors.
Former senior Navy officials have said their warnings about poor maintenance, shoddy technology and a relentless pace of ship deployments went unheeded for years before the 2017 collisions of the guided-missile destroyers Fitzgerald and McCain with container ships, just weeks apart.
Now the Navy is trying to address some of those issues with a new 130,000 square-foot surface ship training center on Naval Base San Diego. The center, the first of two that are planned, is preparing to graduate its first class of surface warfare officers. The $40 million Mariner Skills Training Center Pacific will be fully up and running by the end of the year, according to the center’s commanding officer.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/military/story/2021-07-17/navy-surface-training