The US Navy’s only oil tanker in service is the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, which is stationed in the Middle East to support Israel in the midst of an ongoing war. war with Hamas and soaring tensions between other Iranian-backed groupsran aground Monday off the coast of Oman. US officials told CBS News national security reporter Charlie D’Agata the damage to the USNS Big Horn was significant enough to cause partial flooding of the vessel, and it was escorted by tugboats to the port for a full assessment.
The Big Horn is a type of vessel referred to as an “oiler”, which delivers fuel and other essential supplies to the ships and aircraft attached to the strike group.
No injuries were reported, no other ships were directly affected and there were no signs of a fuel leak from the Big Horn, but the only Navy oil available in the area was to support the Lincoln and its fleet of battleships, escort ships and warships. plane.
Handouts/US Navy
Navy officials would not confirm the authenticity of a video posted online this week that purportedly shows the ship taking on water. The incident is under investigation.
At Big Horn ran after a new resupply mission, with a photo released by the US military showing sailors on the Lincoln receiving supplies from an oiler on September 5, while another from September 11 shows the Big Horn next to the Lincoln.
Lincoln and associated Navy ships have been patrolling the Arabian Sea in support of Israel, and protecting US assets in the region. It has played a role in joint US-UK operations to prevent it Yemen’s Houthi rebels of targeting commercial and military vessels in the area, including the important shipping lanes of the Red Sea. The Houthis, that backed by Iran like Hamascalling the attack on the ship a means of supporting the Palestinians amid Israel’s war with Hamas.
Numerous airstrikes carried out by US and British ships and aircraft in the region against Houthi targets in Yemen have failed to prevent missile attacks on ships.
Although Lincoln itself is powered by a nuclear reactor, the strike group has ships powered by fossil fuels that must be refueled at sea. The plane in Lincoln also needs jet fuel. The Big Horn and other ships like it also provided other supplies.
Handouts/US Navy
The US official called the damage to the refueler an inconvenience but said the fleet would continue to operate without it. Strike group destroyers can refuel in port and can transport aviation fuel to carriers to supply fighter jets and surveillance aircraft.
Oilers like the Big Horn usually have around 80 civilians and five military personnel on board.
The incident comes amid well-documented concerns about the availability of resources for the US Navy as it faces growing global threats, not only with unrest in the Middle East, but as China seeks to assert itself militarily in disputed waters in the South China. The sea and around Taiwan.
Labor shortages in shipyards have resulted backlogs in ship production and maintenance, combined with defense priority changes, last-minute design changes and cost overruns have all been combined putting the US Navy behind China in the number of ships at disposal.
The Navy’s shipbuilding is now in a “terrible state” — its worst in a quarter of a century, he said
Eric Labs, a longtime naval analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, told The Associated Press in August that the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding is in a “terrible state,” largely due to a lack of land-based labor, adding that he doesn’t “see a quick, easy way out of this problem.”
