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Fourth US Navy Collision This Year Raises Suspicion of Cyber-Attacks (thenextweb.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Next Web: Early Monday morning a U.S. Navy Destroyer collided with a merchant vessel off the coast of Singapore. The U.S. Navy initially reported that 10 sailors were missing, and today found "some of the remains" in flooded compartments. While Americans mourn the loss of our brave warriors, top brass is looking for answers. Monday's crash involving the USS John McCain is the fourth in the area, and possibly the most difficult to understand. So far this year 17 U.S. sailors have died in the Pacific southeast due to seemingly accidental collisions with civilian vessels.

Should four collisions in the same geographical area be chalked up to coincidence? Could a military vessel be hacked? In essence, what if GPS spoofing or administrative lockout caused personnel to be unaware of any imminent danger or unable to respond? The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) says there's no reason to think it was a cyber-attack, but they're looking into it: "2 clarify Re: possibility of cyber intrusion or sabotage, no indications right now...but review will consider all possibilities," tweeted Adm. John Richardson. The obvious suspects -- if a sovereign nation is behind any alleged attacks -- would be Russia, China, and North Korea, all of whom have reasonable access to the location of all four incidents. It may be chilling to imagine such a bold risk, but it's not outlandish to think a government might be testing cyber-attack capabilities in the field.

397 comments

  1. Bring it! by s.petry · · Score: 1

    Conspiracy theories activate!

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Bring it! by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 0, Troll

      Gay orgies while on watch?

      What happened to the human backup?

      That's my anti-obama guess for the week, since he let active homos into the military.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    2. Re:Bring it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right. Because there were no gays in the Navy before Obama.

    3. Re:Bring it! by zlives · · Score: 4, Funny

      tesla autopilot is to blame
      google map update caused the issue
      Trump whined to Putin after McCain blocked the health bill
      China warns US of what will happen if they don't get more islands/territory
      India/Micorosoft windows 10 update/virus mishap
      North Korea... err ummm they did something that caused something because they are highly capable

      well its a start.
       

    4. Re:Bring it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "That's my anti-obama guess for the week, since he let active homos into the military." - Actually? There have been homos since Rock Hudson was a pinup on your dad's locker. You never served though.

    5. Re: Bring it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There have been reports of suspected GPS spoofing in the black sea

    6. Re: Bring it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Definitely not the Russians, I'm sure you'll agree.

    7. Re: Bring it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the Navy, you say?

    8. Re:Bring it! by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 3, Funny

      Trump whined to Putin after McCain blocked the health bill

      "You saw what happened to that ship named 'McCain'? Be a shame if the same thing happened to you..."

    9. Re:Bring it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most of the real hardons went Marines.. a few claimed bone spurs..

    10. Re: Bring it! by easyTree · · Score: 2

      They have that covered in spades.

      Maybe the biggest threat to the US is... The US.

    11. Re: Bring it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Every time a ship sails past, a short guy in a row boat yells "Hooters!!!"

      Never fails.
      Never fails.

    12. Re: Bring it! by aliquis · · Score: 1

      "Welcome to the US cyber command. How can I help you?
      Bomb? _"

    13. Re:Bring it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A day without homos is like a day without orange juice

    14. Re:Bring it! by rtb61 · · Score: 1, Troll

      Autopilot is to blame but not on it's own, sailing around the seven seas with an erection is of course the greater problem. We are the US Navy and everyone gets out of our way or we will kill you, hence you do not need to turn off the autopilot and well, bigger ships with only barely sufficiently powerful engines and rudders just barely big enough to steer without causing excessive drag, simply can not take sufficient evasive action to account for the dickhead in the US Navy boat, with their hands around their privates, demanding 'wrong of way' and the merchant vessel no matter what is does is incapable of complying and crash.

      Don't be sucked in by the bullshit. Hundreds of professional sailors and supposedly professional officers on board, radar, sonar, look outs, and big boats that can be seen many kilometres away and should take actions well before hand to miss by hundreds of metres and not take stupid chances, literally minutes to make choices and not the sneaky bullshit they are trying to PR drop on you, the seconds you get in a car collision. Time to turn really big rudders (even fucking manually) and change gears and power up really powerful engines. The only thing being hacked is the egoistic psyche of naval officers to wrapped up in their genitals to pay attention to their seamanship. Real deep state crap, always protect the lie of who you pretend to be, rather than the truth of who you have become, fascist war mongers and the behaviour of your military proves it, hence the need for a lie.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    15. Re: Bring it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reminds me of a clever and hilarious ad for marine GPS equipment...

    16. Re: Bring it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rule of the seas: the more manoevrable boats give way, otherwise referred to as sail before steam.

      What's amazing is that a warship was apparently unaware of this slow moving hulk that would have been going in a fairly straight line. Sounds like they'd be screwed in the case of war.

    17. Re: Bring it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it was a new stealth torpedo design. The prototype being a bit bulky, as they hadn't yet got around to miniaturization.

    18. Re: Bring it! by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Rule of the seas: the more manoevrable boats give way, otherwise referred to as sail before steam.

      No real details in TFA but I'd imagine even the law of gross tonnage would give it to the other guy.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    19. Re:Bring it! by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

      In the 80's the Soviets shot down a Korean 747. It was flying off course and flew too close to one of their airbases in the pacific.

      There was a conspiracy theory back then that the CIA did it. Specifically the moved the plane while it was on the ground to screw up the GPS calibration. This caused it to go off-course and they had a spy plane behind it listening to Soviet radio transmissions and looking at things like how long their response times were.

      In this case it could be something as simple as knocking out some ships prior to an attack. Sort of like Pearl Harbor.

    20. Re:Bring it! by st0nes · · Score: 1

      Rule 5 Look-out . Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.

      Were their eyes hacked as well?

      --
      Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis
  2. Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Isn't there someone on the deck looking for other ships in the vicinity?

    Just saying??

    1. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you're sailing for 50+ days and don't see any other vessel (maybe the bridge of something over the horizon.) It is easy to become complacient with nothing around you. Both ships are at fault imho but (also imo) a navy destroyer should yield to a the absolutely massive shipping container vessles. Those cargo ships have blind spots for miles.

    2. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, without further evidence, it sounds to me more like incompetence than an attack. Why was someone not watching out for any approaching ships, and able to manually take control to avoid them? Reminds me of the old joke about the navy captain and the lighthouse.

      Furthermore, while the possibility of GPS spoofing makes sense, if a cyber attack on the boat itself is even possible, then that's a problem. The Internet of Things is a bad idea for toasters and refrigerators; it manages to be an even worse idea for warships.

    3. Re:Why by PaulBu · · Score: 1

      Or a radar running continuously and when there is a blip on the screen alerting someone? I would imagine that a rogue sub willing to attack the navy ship is not going to be broadcasting its coordinates...

      Paul B.

    4. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bull Shit!

      It's boring is no excuse.

      Get your lazy ass on deck and watch for trouble, or go back to land and fuck off.

    5. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Looking both ways before entering traffic is sooo 20th century....

      Even at night how does one miss what looks like a mountain headed right towards you?

      Save a few bucks and retire them all. What good are they if they can't evade a slow moving mountain? They sound rather useless if someone was trying to hit them.

    6. Re:Why by currently_awake · · Score: 4, Informative

      There are 3 things preventing collisions at sea: 1-the warship has navigation radar. 2-the warship has bridge wing lookouts looking for ships, and ships have lights at night. 3-the civilian ship is also looking around. Yes, an American warship is running windows and is therefore an insecure environment, and could be hacked. But that won't stop the bridge wing lookouts from seeing the other ship coming, and a warship is much more agile (and faster) than a (much larger) cargo freighter. The Law of the Sea says the larger ship has right-of-way, so there is no dispute over who must get out of the way.

    7. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...and so does the law of physics and self preservation.

    8. Re:Why by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Should be a proper look out and be using other means. Radar and lookouts.
      A lot of ELINT and SIGINT in the area?
      Computer issues don't alter the role of people been on duty and having to look around.
      A testing phase should have found most computer related work that needed to be corrected.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    9. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The Law of the Sea says the larger ship has right-of-way, so there is no dispute over who must get out of the way.

      Queue the good old joke about the radio conversation of a US warship demanding the other vessel yield, except it turns out they're talking to a lighthouse.

    10. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
    11. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Collision avoidance systems becomes useless while you're near the port with hundreds of ships.

    12. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The Law of the Sea says the larger ship has right-of-way, so there is no dispute over who must get out of the way.

      You've never been around Americans have you ? Law of the Sea ? They consider it an attack on their personal freedom, what Law ? We do what we want. Understand this, there are the Americans and then there is everybody else. They don't give a rat's ass about Laws.

    13. Re:Why by nanoflower · · Score: 1

      If that was where this collision happened then the people on watch should have been hyper active because there would be a regular stream of ships to keep an eye on. It can't be boredom because there are no ships around if there are lots of ships around.

      I find it hard to believe that the Navy is finding it that difficult to know what caused the previous collisions. It's more likely that they do know and don't want to make it public. Knowing that their own people screwed up would be just the sort of thing they wouldn't want to make public.

    14. Re:Why by hawguy · · Score: 1

      When you're sailing for 50+ days and don't see any other vessel (maybe the bridge of something over the horizon.) It is easy to become complacient with nothing around you. Both ships are at fault imho but (also imo) a navy destroyer should yield to a the absolutely massive shipping container vessles. Those cargo ships have blind spots for miles.

      He was in a busy shipping channel not in the middle of the ocean surrounded by hundreds of miles of open seas.

    15. Re:Why by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      Yeah, no. I've been in that channel before - as a tourist going out to an island on a "bumboat". I've been on boats my whole life, and it was somewhat anxiety-inducing. There is so much shipping that they have the ships separated right and left like a highway. This little bumboat was weaving perpendicular to these massive ships and all I could think was, man, I hope this old bus engine doesn't die.

      So no, they should not have been bored.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    16. Re:Why by david-bo · · Score: 1

      The Law of the Sea says the larger ship has right-of-way

      No, it does not.

    17. Re:Why by Drethon · · Score: 1

      Bull Shit!

      It's boring is no excuse.

      Get your lazy ass on deck and watch for trouble, or go back to land and fuck off.

      Nope, no excuse. Just like falling asleep while driving or just not seeing another car and hitting them is no excuse, but it happens all the time. We are human and make mistakes. This is why automation is replacing humans in so many places.

    18. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or a radar running continuously and when there is a blip on the screen alerting someone? I would imagine that a rogue sub willing to attack the navy ship is not going to be broadcasting its coordinates...

      A rogue sub isn't going to show up on radar either.

      Cow A.

    19. Re:Why by houghi · · Score: 3, Informative

      The Law of the Sea says the larger ship has right-of-way, so there is no dispute over who must get out of the way.

      No, it doesn't. There are clear rules who has right of way.
      If you are in a small vessel, it is WISE to go out of the way, as you can maneuver better than a heavy ship. It does not mean it has right of way.

      It starts with the fact that a commercial vessel has right of way over a commercial vessel. Next there are very specific maritime laws that determine who has right of way. (No vessel ever has absolute "right of way" over other vessels. Rather, there can be a "give way" (burdened) vessel and a "stand on" (privileged) vessel, or there may be two give way vessels with no stand on vessel)

      A simple explanation of how stupid it would be is that you have NO idea how heavy a ship is. A smaller ship in length can easily be heavier than a much larger ship and you have no way of knowing.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... for a very basic idea and links to the rest.

      As this very basic idea is wrong, I need to assume that you also have no idea about the rest.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    20. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I read a few other articles and it appears that the ship lost steerage and they were working on getting steering back. Which would beg the question as to why they didn't hoist the night/day marker that they were restricted in maneuvering and communicate with the other ships, but it might have been to late to even say something.

    21. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Law of the Sea says the larger ship has right-of-way, so there is no dispute over who must get out of the way.

      Ah...incorrect. You might want to look up the Rules of Navigation, there are NO, as in ZERO rules, that state size of a ship has the right of way. It's typically a gentleman's agreement that if you are smaller you should give way, but there are no laws regarding that. The warship displays a Red light on the port side. It got hit on the Port side. Rules of Navigation says:

      A boat approaching from your starboard (right) side has right of way. If you are approaching another boat from its starboard side, you have right of way. However, if the other boat does not give way, you must take action to avoid a collision.

      Since the McCain got hit on the Port side, the Cargo vessel had to give way to it....legally...in the Maritime court of law.

      However, doing further reading I have found out that the McCain had a loss of steering. Which means that when that happened, they would have reduced speed, and it might have been to late for the cargo vessel to alter course.

      I doubt this had anything to do with whether or not they saw each other. I bet it was because they were busy trying to restore steering, never called the cargo vessel in the area to let them know of the situation or their intent

    22. Re:Why by mschuyler · · Score: 1

      Why is this modded up? It's completely wrong. The amount of ignorant nonsense spouted in this thread by armchair admirals whose sum total of experience at sea is from watching Gilligan's Island is amazing. Slashdot is not competent to deal with the issues here.

      --
      How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
    23. Re:Why by t14m4t · · Score: 1

      The Law of Differential Masses says the larger ship gets right-of-way. The Law of the Sea, or more correctly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as well as the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, says the more maneuverable vessel is the give-way vessel, but only when higher levels of responsibility aren't present.

      An example of a higher level of responsibility? How about International Rule 8.f(iii), as defined by the US Coast Guard Rules of the Road: "A vessel, the passage of which is not to be impeded remains fully obliged to comply with the rules of this part when the two vessels are approaching one another so as to involve risk of collision."

      Or the Inland version of the same rule: "A vessel the passage of which is not to be impeded remains fully obliged to comply with the Rules of Subpart B (Rules 4-19) when the two vessels are approaching one another so as to involve risk of collision."

      Or the English vernacular version: "Fuck all if you have right-of-way, you still have responsibility to avoid going bump." Which means even if the destroyer's driver was an ass-hat and was 99% in the wrong, if the merchant was making way under her own power then she cannot avoid her own responsibility.

      --
      67.5% Slashdot Pure I guess I need to work on that.... :)
    24. Re:Why by green1 · · Score: 1

      It basically does.
      It says that the less manoeuvrable ship has right of way, which basically boils down to the same thing.

    25. Re:Why by mcswell · · Score: 1

      No it does not say that. You might want to look at the facts before you spout off. You might for example look at definition g here: https://archive.is/20110721192.... It does say "not limited to", but that definitely does not mean "bigger".

    26. Re:Why by mcswell · · Score: 1

      "The Law of Differential Masses says the larger ship gets right-of-way." No it does not, and afaict the "United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea" says nothing whatsoever about ships, right-of-way, etc. The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea does have to do with boats and ships, but it definitely does not say anything about bigger vs. smaller; the lack of maneuverability has to do with things like laying cables, launching aircraft, dredging, UNREP, towing other vessels, etc.

    27. Re:Why by green1 · · Score: 1

      I sure hope you never operate any form of vessel....

  3. Aren't these ships running.... by roc97007 · · Score: 1

    ...Windows for Warships? based on XP if memory serves? I wonder when they were patched last?

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    1. Re:Aren't these ships running.... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 2

      They may have been stuck in a forced upgrade to Windows 10, and were in the process of rebooting when the collisions occurred. Could Microsoft have ignored the Navy's desires not to upgrade to Windows 10, i.e., taken the Navy's dismissal as an OK to do so?

    2. Re:Aren't these ships running.... by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Funny

      They may have been stuck in a forced upgrade to Windows 10, and were in the process of rebooting when the collisions occurred. Could Microsoft have ignored the Navy's desires not to upgrade to Windows 10, i.e., taken the Navy's dismissal as an OK to do so?

      "Ready fire control! Bogies off the port bow!"

      "I can't, sir. All the screens say 'Hi. We're setting things up for you'".

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    3. Re:Aren't these ships running.... by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      They installed Microsoft Bob on their Windows for Warships 3.11, but no other ships were rendered as being in the room.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    4. Re:Aren't these ships running.... by mcswell · · Score: 1

      We call them Portholes.

  4. Other possibilities by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Funny

    Have the considered it's not a state actor but a rich media mogul who's causing the accidents to extend his media empire? If only there were dashing British secret agent to stop this dastardly villain's evil plans.

    1. Re: Other possibilities by bestweasel · · Score: 1

      Tomorrow Never Dies was the first thing I thought of when I read about the latest crash, closely followed by wondering if it was the Chinese. Though like in the film it could be the Russians pretending to be the Chinese, or Rupert Murdoch pretending to be the North Koreans or just a coincidence.

    2. Re:Other possibilities by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 2

      Could it be Larry Ellison? Has his yacht been seen in the vicinity, or is it docked inside his inactive volcano base?

    3. Re:Other possibilities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like someone should make a movie about that. ;)

    4. Re:Other possibilities by sabbede · · Score: 1

      That's definitely funny. 100% made me laugh. But in all seriousness, it worked for William Randolph Hearst.

  5. Speculation based on fear and anxiety. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is nothing more than speculation based on fear. Fear is always about what's in peoples sub-conscious that they feel they can't control, and varies with whatever people feel anxious about at the time.

    60 years ago the headline would have been "Are the collisions based on Soviet Saboteurs? How many communists are in the Navy?" These days it's computers. Same old story.

    1. Re:Speculation based on fear and anxiety. by toonces33 · · Score: 1

      Speculation, yes, but I guess it is still worth checking out. But they probably ought not have said anything about it unless they came up with some evidence.

    2. Re:Speculation based on fear and anxiety. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no sense in state actors doing minor damage to warships, risking a war or at least a diplomatic crisis when found out, while not at war already. Why tip your hand early? That's just stupid. So it's probably not state actors. Drunk kids, possible. Maaaybe. But that still means hopelessly inept "security" of military systems, while the military know full well that this sort of system needs to NOT AT ALL be connected to the public internet or otherwise be open for unauthorised connecting to. So even if there are other actors, then it's still completely on the heads of the military themselves. They'd still have to check out just what's going on of course, but expect the reports to be classified.

      Saying this sort of thing now in public means something else entirely. Just like "roossian haxx0rz did it!" from, well, you know which politicians and TLAgencies. It's a fib. They're trying to deflect attention from something else. So the only thing that makes sense for everyone else is to ask ourselves, what are who trying to deflect attention away from, hm?

    3. Re: Speculation based on fear and anxiety. by easyTree · · Score: 1

      When there's an accidental nuclear strike from a warship, it'll be omg the haXorz did it.

  6. It was Russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    obviously. Because cyber.

    CAPTCHA: conquers

  7. You know what's really chilling and a bold risk? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Any military power using anything from Microsoft.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  8. I'd say it's a good theory by the_skywise · · Score: 1

    Except (at least for the last 2 boats I saw) they were hit midship. If they had been hacked I'd have expected the GPS hacking to steer the ships INTO other ships - not vice versa - which would require a higher level of control.

    1. Re:I'd say it's a good theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except (at least for the last 2 boats I saw) they were hit midship. If they had been hacked I'd have expected the GPS hacking to steer the ships INTO other ships - not vice versa - which would require a higher level of control.

      That's the genius of this hack! Its also proof of state-level actors!!!

      !!!!

    2. Re:I'd say it's a good theory by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      Well, I would think it's easier to hack a civilian ship than a warship - so I'd imagine they're considering that possibility as well.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    3. Re:I'd say it's a good theory by sgrover · · Score: 1

      perhaps the other vessels involved were the alleged hacking targets, with the intention of causing grief for a US military vessel... I find it easier to believe a commercial vessel would be easier to hack than a warship...

    4. Re:I'd say it's a good theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't. The commercial market has consequences for failed products, unlike the government.

    5. Re:I'd say it's a good theory by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Except (at least for the last 2 boats I saw) they were hit midship. If they had been hacked I'd have expected the GPS hacking to steer the ships INTO other ships - not vice versa - which would require a higher level of control.

      No no no, it's not hacking the ship itself. That's hard. You hack the wetware, because that's easier.

      You cyberattack the crew instead - perhaps sending messages to their phones that their girlfriend is about to break up with them. Or you invent some new addictive game so their eyes are on their phone screens more than any other screen.

      That's how you do it. Hacking GPS is hard. Hacking humans is much easier.

      Yeah yeah yeah, navy, phones, illegal, etc. etc. etc.

    6. Re: I'd say it's a good theory by easyTree · · Score: 1

      Sure they do, a bigger budget next year.

    7. Re: I'd say it's a good theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Executive bonuses, usually.

    8. Re:I'd say it's a good theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty hard to hack a container ship into becoming stealth enough to be seen neither on the radar, nor by looking out of the window of a warship.

  9. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Seriously! Moar military spending is the solution to, well... pretty much everything, or so I've been told.

  10. If so... by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    Windows for Warships, baby.

  11. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How much training is required TO MISS A FUCKING TANKER

    Somehow commercially operated craft do it, they must be up to something

  12. PROFIBUS & PROFINET by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where problems begin.

  13. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obummer is coming for your guns!

  14. More likely it is lazyness by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 3, Interesting

    On a big ship no one is relying on GPS alone.
    Every ship has a magnetic compass.
    A helmsman should realize if the compass heading ans speed versus the GPS position makes any sense.

    Then again: during daytime a big civilian (freight!) vessel is like a mountain. It is extremely hard to overlook it.

    During night time, the whole deck of big ocean going vessles is illuminated by flood lights.

    Unless in fog, IT IS COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERSEE IT

    And then we have radar .... so if the ship got "hacked" the only option are hacked bandanas on the eyes of the watch and a hacked radar system.

    The latter would be a story, though.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    1. Re:More likely it is lazyness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some theories are the Navy is spread thin but has the same number of missions, so crews get less rest and less training time. Less time in port equates to less maintenance time, downtime and training. Also many experienced Navy personnel retiring replaced by less experienced crews. Finally the Navy was engaging in a lot of politically correct bullshit when Obama was in office that may be affecting morale.

      Let's also remember that accidents do cluster like a lot of events and there is statistical theory that covers it. It doesn't necessarily mean things are worse just that incidents aren't spread evenly this year that they are in other years.

      The cyber hacking is just fucking nonsense.

    2. Re:More likely it is lazyness by LunaticTippy · · Score: 2

      This was a horrible dereliction of duty by the destroyer, but I've seen hundreds of cargo ships at night in the open ocean and none of them have had any lights beyond the minimal navigation lights mandated by the coast guard.

      It takes some getting used to how giant ships can appear "out of nowhere" in good visibility with an attentive watch.

      It is really challenging to navigate through congested areas, even with good equipment. I would expect the navy to have the best procedures, training, and personnel but in several cases lately they have fallen short.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
    3. Re:More likely it is lazyness by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      I was waiting for the moron to come out and blame Obama, but I was hoping they'd at least have the courage to put their name by it. I guess the "nationalists" haven't got quite that brave yet.

    4. Re:More likely it is lazyness by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      I would expect the navy to have the best procedures, training, and personnel but in several cases lately they have fallen short.

      You left out "equipment," and if you only read the headline you'd know that it is one of the suspects.

    5. Re:More likely it is lazyness by swillden · · Score: 2

      Let's also remember that accidents do cluster like a lot of events and there is statistical theory that covers it.

      No, there's no statistical theory that says accidents or other events tend to cluster. Statistics just says that clusters do happen sometimes. Human intuition (AKA common sense) says that rare random events should always be widely separated in time, but that's because common sense sucks at understanding randomness.

      Common sense tells us that if a rare event has just happened, the probability that it's going to happen again is decreased because it just happened. But random events don't work that way. The fact that one just happened neither increases nor decreases the chance that another will happen now, which means that common sense is surprised in the (rare) case that two of them happen in quick succession and shocked when three happen. Because these clusters are surprising to our innumerate brains they stick out in our memory... and since our brains insist on finding causes and inventing narratives, we get folk theories that random events cluster. Confirmation bias then causes us to take note of every cluster because it confirms the theory, and ignore single events, because they don't.

      So, common sense erroneously tells us that accidents cluster. Statistics tells us that accidents (assuming they're rare random events) can happen at any time, which means that accident clusters occur, but non-clustered accidents are more common. If accidents cluster too much or too often, that's evidence that the accidents aren't random.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    6. Re:More likely it is lazyness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's also remember that accidents do cluster like a lot of events and there is statistical theory that covers it.

      No, there's no statistical theory that says accidents or other events tend to cluster. Statistics just says that clusters do happen sometimes. Human intuition (AKA common sense) says that rare random events should always be widely separated in time, but that's because common sense sucks at understanding randomness.

      Common sense tells us that if a rare event has just happened, the probability that it's going to happen again is decreased because it just happened. But random events don't work that way.

      You have a complex set of systems on both ships and people, weather, and all the rest. Still, I'm not sure I'd call such a system random. The very idea of safety critical systems is so that the random element is almost removed. Any failures should fail in non life threatening manner. For instance if the system is triply redundant, the power on test should check every part of it and then fail it if any of the redundancy isn't up to spec before the system is on-line. You may or may not be able to bypass the check, but you should know that your running out of a recommended condition. Ignoring such a failure is a bit like you have lost a single drive in a raid 5 array with ten disks and all of the disk were bought at the same time. Are you feeling lucky? Of course triply redundant would be more like a 3 drive raid 6 array, but anyway.

      I'm guessing there is a screw up somewhere. Control systems, people, software, sensors. More than one of the above. As far as ships seeing other ships, you could probably launch UAVs for some additional data, if you really needed it. Yes, the some of the above error is my guess. Some situation wasn't anticipated, such that the combination of problems resulted in at least a temporary failure at the wrong time. I surely hope they are not really running a retail windows OS for any important task. If you must do that run a stripped down version of windows embedded or whatever they call it now, with only just what you need (possibly from a read only file system) and don't let anyone put it any random USB sticks, nor network it to the general network. Another way to control such a system might be through a network KVM from a less secure system.

      Regardless, I'd be more inclined to suspect they are running some kind of safety critical OS for steering and such, or at least I'd hope so... Of course, they could very well know or at least have an idea of the cause of the failures. It could just be classified due to the thing that is failing. Hopefully no one tweets what it is...

    7. Re:More likely it is lazyness by quiet_guy · · Score: 1

      One nit - at night, decks of big ocean going vessels are NOT illuminated by floodlights. That would be quite contrary to the navigation light requirements of the Rules of the Road. While underway, they only show side lights, mast head light, range light, and stern light. When anchored, then YES the decks are illuminated - as required by the rules.

    8. Re:More likely it is lazyness by LunaticTippy · · Score: 1

      If Navy procedures, training, and personnel cannot deal with malfunctioning equipment then they are woefully inadequate.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
    9. Re:More likely it is lazyness by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      You are tight, seems my memory is getting bad.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    10. Re:More likely it is lazyness by mcswell · · Score: 1

      Back in the 70s (yes, the 1970s), I recall passing cruise liners that had roughly half a bazillion lights on. I don't know whether they still do that. IIRC, merchant ships would normally not have more lights on than they needed, i.e. they would (as you say) have just the navigation lights while underway.

  15. Definitely not by Dan+East · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Any nation-state with the ability to hack software that would influence the most powerful warships in the world would not be doing so for farts and giggles over the course of months to cause a few (in the scheme of things) relatively minor collisions during peace time. They would reserve this cyber weapon for use when it really counted. If this was the result of a lone wolf hacker they would have sold this weapon for a huge amount of money to any of the countries that would want them to use against the US when needed, not risking its discovery messing around with it just for fun.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:Definitely not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right? This would be one of the most advanced hacks ever and they would waste it ramming a few cargo ships during peace time. Nothing about that adds up especially when you compare it to the chances that the Navy is just getting lax about training and discipline.

    2. Re:Definitely not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well they do have to demonstrate the hack to make sure it's worth buying.

      captcha: nonsense

    3. Re:Definitely not by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      If you're smart enough not to be planning open war with the US, then ramming cargo ships during peace time might be the most damage you could hope to do with it.

      I know it sounds smart, "Gosh there is a better use for that, just ask me." But your analysis leaves out numerous obvious considerations. Hacking the navigation of warships during wartime just gets the automatics turned off, and they're navigating manually. During wartime, they're also not navigating close to civilian vessels, or any other vessels, and so you won't even cause a crash; during wartime you cause a slight annoyance and they go to manual. During peacetime you can actually use this and cause damage!

      Also, simply saving an exploit for the future isn't obviously returning more value than using it while it works. What if they find and fix the bug before you ever make use of it? For the Russians and Chinese who have large intelligence agencies with large numbers of exploits, and seats on the UN Security Council, it is generally going to make more sense to save stuff and only use the lower risk tools. But for North Korea, that's a very different evaluation; short term politics might be a lot more important, risks are very different, outcomes of discovery are also different.

      And finally, we have no idea if it would be "one of the most advanced hacks ever" or just a simple exploit that was previously unknown, with a fancy target.

    4. Re:Definitely not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "They would reserve this cyber weapon for use when it really counted."

      This is false.

      After the Chinese fighter hit a US surveillance plane and the US plane had to land in China during the Bush II years, the US crew burnt sensitive electronics as per protocol.

      China still managed to reconstruct a certain cyrpto implementation. They then blatantly showed they had done this by obtusely hacking a US military network. iow, they deliberately hit a lower grade network badly, one they knew was monitored, not trying to hide it, and fumbled deliberately what they had, with no advantage to them. The US rotated out of that crypto scheme.

      Just because you have the mentality of holding in reserve cards you think would be of use to you later, most competent countries, including the US, do not. They explore, brag, and sow doubt in their enemies. Asian countries in particular take a long term view, saying that they're still there, largely because they know the US lacks real staying power.

      If everyone held off on what they think they could do, there would never ever be any bluster. There's plenty of that in the military world between nations.

      You also vastly underestimate something getting out of hand or someone looking for a promotion. This could be something unleashed that had the intended consequence to show superiors. China, for example, could have unleashed a proof of concept, and this is simply a status move to show how weak the US system is, something they feel they could easily penetrate later. Militarily, this sends a bit of doubt already, and China wants that, since they know the US can't handle their long-term expansions, particularly given their coast guard buildup over the past half a decade.

      Nothing better to show the higher ups their team can get to the US than a handful of "accidents".

    5. Re:Definitely not by HiThere · · Score: 1

      FWIW there were also reports of ships in the Black Sea being "out of position" for several days. I didn't read of any accidents, but GPS hacking was suspected.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    6. Re:Definitely not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't follow.

      Maybe it's not so much a matter of "hacking software", as of deploying various countermeasures (such as interfering with GPS, spoofing radar) to mislead warships about their precise location and/or heading. Maybe it's an imprecise science being fine-tuned. Maybe it requires a level of proximity to the target that you couldn't realistically achieve during wartime. Maybe it's just not that powerful: the enemy knows they could never reliably cause blue-on-blue fire or ships running aground in a combat situation, but they can cause cost and embarrassment to the enemy during peacetime, so they're doing that.

      There are lots of reasons why an enemy might choose to use such a tool in this way.

    7. Re:Definitely not by blindseer · · Score: 1

      If some large nation has the ability to confuse US Navy ship navigation for an advantage in a war then would they not want to test it before, you know, having their own navy sunk in an all out war?

      If this is the action of a "lone wolf" that wants to sell this to such a powerful nation, to get an advantage in a war, then would they not have to demonstrate it to sell it?

      This was something of a tactic used by the USA to remove all doubts of their military and technological capability, they'd show off once, then do it again shortly after. By doing it twice they proved the first wasn't just getting lucky. It also showed that they could do it again at essentially anytime they wished.

      There is some speculation that the US Navy shooting down a satellite shortly after the Chinese did it was just a show for the Chinese. The US Navy claimed it was a necessary shoot down of a dead satellite in a decaying orbit that threatened to land in a populated area, which due to it's size and massive load of fuel could have threatened life and property. They did it only once though. That was then likely enough to deflate the Chinese ego.

      Let's also remember that the collisions were with civilian vessels. It's quite likely the US Navy ships new precisely where they were at the time. The problem is more like the civilian ships didn't know which way was up and big ships in small spaces can run into each other. This doesn't explain it all since the US Navy ships still have means to detect and identify ships in the worst conditions. Something still had to go wrong on those US Navy ships. That was probably trusting the ships would be transmitting accurate identification and location by their collision avoidance beacons.

      If someone sets up a false navigation beacon that messes with the civilian ships that shifts their navigation track over by a few thousand feet, but the US Navy ships are immune, now you have ships in a narrow shipping lane and not everyone is using the same map. It could be that if this is an attempt to crash US Navy ships then this has been attempted for a long time now, it's only recently that they got lucky or skilled enough to do any real damage.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    8. Re:Definitely not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any software developer.. needs to test their app. IMHO... for better or worse this is just the alpha test stage. Then comes the beta. They are relying on the ignorance of the masses to accept the phrase "accident" instead of "Phase 1 testing"

      Then God Forbid.. the full roll-out when it goes all SHTF.

      “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action”

        Ian Fleming

    9. Re:Definitely not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If some large nation has the ability to confuse US Navy ship navigation for an advantage in a war then would they not want to test it before, you know, having their own navy sunk in an all out war?

      If this is the action of a "lone wolf" that wants to sell this to such a powerful nation, to get an advantage in a war, then would they not have to demonstrate it to sell it?

      This was something of a tactic used by the USA to remove all doubts of their military and technological capability, they'd show off once, then do it again shortly after. By doing it twice they proved the first wasn't just getting lucky. It also showed that they could do it again at essentially anytime they wished.

      There is some speculation that the US Navy shooting down a satellite shortly after the Chinese did it was just a show for the Chinese. The US Navy claimed it was a necessary shoot down of a dead satellite in a decaying orbit that threatened to land in a populated area, which due to it's size and massive load of fuel could have threatened life and property. They did it only once though. That was then likely enough to deflate the Chinese ego.

      Let's also remember that the collisions were with civilian vessels. It's quite likely the US Navy ships new precisely where they were at the time. The problem is more like the civilian ships didn't know which way was up and big ships in small spaces can run into each other. This doesn't explain it all since the US Navy ships still have means to detect and identify ships in the worst conditions. Something still had to go wrong on those US Navy ships. That was probably trusting the ships would be transmitting accurate identification and location by their collision avoidance beacons.

      If someone sets up a false navigation beacon that messes with the civilian ships that shifts their navigation track over by a few thousand feet, but the US Navy ships are immune, now you have ships in a narrow shipping lane and not everyone is using the same map. It could be that if this is an attempt to crash US Navy ships then this has been attempted for a long time now, it's only recently that they got lucky or skilled enough to do any real damage.

      The much simpler explanation is that there were several large fast moving (but not very maneuverable) ships passing in close proximity with poor visibility and in the limited time availabe the navy officer made a bad call on how to void them.

      This happening once would juts be an accident. It happening many times most clearly points to inadequate training of US navy officers.

    10. Re:Definitely not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If this was the result of a lone wolf hacker they would have sold this weapon for a huge amount of money to any of the countries that would want them to use against the US when needed, not risking its discovery messing around with it just for fun.

      Maybe that IS what's going on, but the buyer wanted a demonstration before ponying up epic cash based on some pretty grand claims.

  16. Heard it working for the army... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Once is Happenstance,
    Twice is Coincidence,
    Three Times is Enemy Action!

    1. Re: Heard it working for the army... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This is the fourth time - what's that, divine intervention?

    2. Re: Heard it working for the army... by Jesus+H+Rolle · · Score: 1

      Fourth time is 4chan.

  17. More likely.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ..the main cause is incompetency or negligence, or both..

  18. I ran over my neighbor's dog by easyTree · · Score: 1

    Cyber attacks are suspected

    1. Re:I ran over my neighbor's dog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The first three times were flukes, but the fourth time you ran over the same dog it's definitely cyber attacks.

    2. Re: I ran over my neighbor's dog by easyTree · · Score: 1

      That's what I tell myself as I'm chasing it down the street.

      Ahem, I mean each time it happens completely by mistake.

  19. Re:A better theory by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 1

    Seriously! Moar military spending is the solution to, well... pretty much everything, or so I've been told.

    To be fair it's about as credible as:

    Seriously! Moar (sic) social spending is the solution to, well... pretty much everything, or so I've been told.

  20. never attribute to malice that which is incompeten by lkcl · · Score: 2, Informative

    does anyone else remember the "flagship US airforce carrier" that, back in the mid 1990s, had to be TOWED into harbour... because it was running Window NT 4.0 systems... which had just crashed across the *entire* ship? and does anyone else remember soldiers running Sony BMG Root-kitted CDs which then illegally sent out a listing of CLASSIFIED FILENAMES OFF TO SONY'S SERVERS?? do we not remember these things??

    there is a *really good reason* why the NSA refuses to permit windows systems on its premises. why cannot the U.S. Military get it through its thick fucking head that running an OS that's been cost-shaved by a company that REFUSES TO LET ITS SECURITY TEAM MAKE CRITICAL CHANGES because the Security Director is told, every single fucking time "your proposed security improvement will cost us money. get lost and come back when you have a quotes security quotes fix that actually makes us some money".

    we KNOW it's insecure. we KNOW it can be root-kitted (thank you NSA). we KNOW that there is ransomware and christ knows what else. so i don't understand why people do not understand that to run the Windows Operating System is tantamount to self-harm, and any Military that runs the Windows OS is basically, sad to say it, ASKING - no is DESPERATE - to be screwed over by anyone and everyone.

  21. MH370 - paging CNN by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    This is like the opening act that sets the scene in a disaster movie.

    Also, NEVER let a Senator drive the submarine!

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:MH370 - paging CNN by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Informative

      A good conspiracy theorist would not squander his credibilty by getting basic facts wrong, like saying a collision occurred in the "Pacific southeast" when it actually occurred north of the equator in the Western Pacific. The Southeastern Pacific is off the coast of Chile, about 16,000 km away, or roughly halfway around the world.

    2. Re:MH370 - paging CNN by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      Well, we know it has to be an American conspiracy if the geography is so blatantly wrong.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    3. Re:MH370 - paging CNN by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

      Does that mean Washington and Oregon are actually the Pacific Northeast?

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
    4. Re:MH370 - paging CNN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Arctic Midsouth

  22. Wait, I've seen this movie before by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    This sounds like the basic plot from a half-dozen or so of the James Bond movies.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Wait, I've seen this movie before by Thelasko · · Score: 1

      Sounds like The Spy Who Loved Me specifically.

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  23. Re:A better theory by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The tanker ran into the warship. Coming into port the water can get crowded, with two-way, large-ship traffic. The warship was hit on the port side, which is a strong indication it had the right of way.

    If any vehicle was hacked here, it was the tanker. While GPS jamming/spoofing is possible, getting it to reroute into a specific other ship is not an easy hack.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  24. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, Mitt Romney tried that crap when he wanted us to have the same size fleet as we had after WWI, the same number of planes as after WW2, and to bring back the Postal Jeep.

    Go try to get us to build a stadium instead.

  25. Real cause... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ahh, but the strawberries that's... that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with... geometric logic... that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist, and I'd have produced that key if they hadn't of pulled the Caine out of action. I, I, I know now they were only trying to protect some fellow officers...

  26. Yeah, right by willoughby · · Score: 1

    It's pretty tough to "hack" the sonar shack and operator. I suppose you might foul up communication between sonar and the bridge, but the Navy has a backup for that, too, including runners if necessary. And BTW, do they still have voice-powered phones on board?

    1. Re:Yeah, right by currently_awake · · Score: 1

      The sonar operators are not normally working all the time in peacetime. They have sound powered phones for a handful of critical positions (helm) but not the sonar ops.

  27. Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 0

    Once is a tragedy.

    Twice is a coincidence.

    Thrice is an attack.

    Four times is some form of attack combined with incompetent response.

    It is clear that there is some form of electronic warfare (not necessarily hacking) at play here. This goes beyond just GPS spoofing, since these ships are loaded with surface radar that should spot a massive container or tanker ship from the horizon, even if one or both ships is off course. I highly doubt that N. Korea's saber rattling which caused more US naval assets to enter the region was a coincidence. Given the location of all the ships involved prior to and during the accidents, I highly suspect that either China or N. Korea have been field testing a new clandestine weapon. Once we figure out what it is and who has been doing it, we should make sure to obliterate the source and sink 4 of their naval ships for starters. If they want to continue to attack the US navy, we can continue to to destroy their assets, since this is an act of war according to international law.

    --
    If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    1. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a fucking idiot.

    2. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unless its a cloaking device, you'd have to blind or careless to hit a large ship with a destroyer.

    3. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by Pascoea · · Score: 1

      Once is a tragedy.
      Twice is a coincidence.
      Thrice is an attack....

      ...It is clear that there is some form of electronic warfare

      I don't think that anything is "clear" at this point, but in place of your (what I assume is a quote) I suggest Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity". I can't imagine the level of sophistication it would take to get two vessels to run into each other. Negligence seems like a far more likely explanation. But as I said, nothing is clear at this point.

    4. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by bongey · · Score: 1

      Having work military "certification" testing, the test are usually the most ideal conditions such that systems always passes. My bet is on the navigation system/ radar system has a bug in which big ship just disappears.

    5. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jeez, lay off whatever you're taking.

      OK, one simple question.. how the fuck does "electronic warfare" disable the eyeballs of all of those on watch on both vessels ?

    6. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      I suggest Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity". I can't imagine the level of sophistication it would take to get two vessels to run into each other.

      OK, you can't imagine what the technical details would be, that means you're not going to be able to measure the adequacy required for it have likely been stupidity.

      Applying Hanlon's Razor to your comment, it is more likely that you just didn't understand Hanlon's Razor than that you intentionally impersonated an idiot.

    7. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

      Well if that's true the Navy must think they were attacked by one of their own because they just fired a vice admiral for it. I wonder how bad it has to get before they fire the commander in chief of the navy, whoever that is...

      --
      Nullius in verba
    8. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by djinn6 · · Score: 1

      Four times is some form of attack combined with incompetent response.

      By that logic, the 30,000 or so deadly car accidents we have each year is rock solid evidence that someone is out to get us.

      Also, I made 3 typo's while typing this. Someone is hacking my keyboard!

    9. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 0

      Your "logic" fails a basic understanding of shipping lanes and navy ship procedures, precautions and general practice. The equivalent analogy is 4 car accidents in a few months where each vehicle is navigated by multiple professionals where that is their sole job, in addition to computers and radar that sees for hundreds of miles in all directions. Furthermore, while under way (i.e. not in a harbor) the equivalent analogy is that the "roads" are hundreds if not thousands of miles wide and there are millions of miles of "road" and there are well under a million vehicles in total (not the 263,000,000 registered cars in the US) all of which are operated by professionals responsible for multi-million dollar vehicles.

      So lets recount the errors in your analogy:
      -Each ship has multiple professional "drivers" to guide the ship (not a single person with a few dozen hours of training like cars)
      -Each naval ship has active radar that can see to the horizon to avoid other ships long before they even get close.
      -Each naval ship has computer systems as well as humans that monitor their defensive "sphere" and track and alert to anything inside that sphere.
      -There are fewer that 1,000,000 large ships in the Pacific, whereas there are 263x more cars in use in the US.
      -The "roads" used by ships are hundreds of miles wide (shipping lanes).
      -The "roads" used by ships cover 70% of the earths surface. Assuming less than 1M large ships, if we assume equal distribution, each ship has roughly 200 square miles to it'self. Even without equal distribution, ships on the high sea typically stay thousands of meters apart.

      All of these factors that you ignored or are ignorant of lead to massively reduce the chances of an accidental T-bone collision to near zero chances (i.e. 0.0001% chance). If you review the list of historical accidental collisions, out of the 7 collisions from 1989-2015 (26 years) 3 accidental collisions involve submarines which are inherently invisible to ships and themselves struggle to avoid collision inside harbors where traffic is heavy and their maneuverability is limited. Nearly all of the remaining collisions were either with small vessels some of which did not even have a radio or during exercises (refueling/resupply/training) where the ships were intentionally in close proximity and sustained broadside contact (not a collision as we have recently seen). https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0...

      Zero collisions involved T-bone collisions on the high seas. Now we have seen the John McCain, the Fitzgerald, the Lake Champlain all T-boned by other large ships in less than 3 months.

      Zero collisions in the prior 26 years involved massive commercial transport ships. The most recent two collisions have both been with massive transports which rammed into the naval vessels mid ship.

      To sum it up for you: Zero of the 4 naval surface ship collisions in the last 26 YEARS have been with large commercial ships, zero of the collisions have been T-bone collisions and now suddenly we have had 3 in less than 3 months in a single region of the world. I guess to the America haters that is a coincidence. To those of us with a brain it is something else.

      --
      If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    10. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

      Or he was let go due to incompetence in blaming personnel instead of figuring out what is going on, which I cited in my original post. After the second collision, the navy should have pulled out all the stops to figure out what is being done to affect our ships (hacking, electronic warfare, whatever it is) but they did not. Given that all of these collisions have happened within proximity to North Korea and I doubt China would be stupid enough to attack the US, it is very likely that North Korea is attacking the US navy using either hacks or some other method to blind our radar systems and then GPS spoofing to steer other ships into our naval ships. If/when we figure out the method and tie it to North Korea, they are going to get the military annihilation they have been begging for recently. I hope China doesn't mind the nuclear fallout from their proxy drifting over their border (tough shit if they don't like it).

      --
      If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    11. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

      Not saying that isn't possible, but if that were the case then why have we only had 4 surface ship collisions in the prior 26 years and then 3 in the last two months? Open ocean collisions not involving resupply or refueling ships is vanishingly rare, and now we suddenly have 3 in two months, all in the same global region, all T-bone collisions (which on the open ocean are like finding a mermaid riding a unicorn, a.k.a. they don't happen to large modern vessels).

      --
      If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    12. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 0

      The odds of an open ocean collision are astronomical. There have been 4 such naval surface vessel collisions in the prior 26 years. None were T-bone. 3 of those were the result of refueling/resupply mishaps between ships intentionally trying to get close to each other. The 4th was a small fishing boat that tried to "beat the train" in front of a aircraft carrier and got squished. Now we have 3 T-bone collisions in 2 months in one specific region of the world, all by large to massive ships.

      I could accomplish the task with less than $10,000 and a few software/electrical engineers. Build a GPS spoofing device, smuggle it onto the commercial vessel and plant it near the GPS antenna. Use it to steer the commercial vessel into the naval ship, which is totally unprepared and unsuspecting that such a thing would happen. The naval vessel will likely change course and speed several times to avoid collision, but they can't sink a 30,000 ton commercial vessel without cause and by the time they realize what is happening, the collision is unavoidable. For good measure, mount the GPS spoofing device to a negatively buoyant drone and fly it into the ocean just before the collision, erasing all evidence of the GPS spoofer. All the tech involved is OTS and not that hard to integrate with the exception of actually forming the spoofed GPS signals well enough to steer the commercial vessel, which take some sophistication.

      Your lack of imagination doesn't make something impossible or even unlikely.

      --
      If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    13. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Both the navigation system and combat system would have had to have a bug that made the same ship disappear. The navigation system and combat system do not get track from each other and were made by 2 different groups of people so this is unlikely. There are many different radar systems that would have detected the other ship all made by different people, so again a common bug in all of them is unlikely.

      Odds are there were several people who had the imminent crash visible on their screens in both combat and navigation but they were either not properly trained or they were not paying attention and missed it. A dozen sailors all missing the same thing is much more likely than a dozen different systems all having the same bug despite not sharing any code.

    14. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by mean+pun · · Score: 1

      I can see you are really in love with your theory, but:

      (1) this incident did not happen in the "open ocean"; it happened in one of the busiest shipping lanes of the world.

      (2) I haven't read any reports of the tanker doing something odd until right before the collision, and that was probably an evasive manoeuvre. And even if that last dash was caused by GPS spoofing, what was the destroyer doing so near the tanker in the first place?

      (3) The tanker also had other sensors available next to GPS, including the good old Mk 1 eyeball, making GPS spoofing implausible.

      (4) No matter what, a destroyer from any decent naval power should not be vulnerable to a deliberate attack by a tanker, even if it was hijacked by twenty madmen on a suicide mission. The destroyer can outmanoeuvre and outrun the tanker by a vast margin. Being surprised is not an excuse because (a) the crew should have been alert in this busy shipping lane anyways, and (b) safety margins.

      Since a lot is still unknown I will label your theory 'implausible' rather than 'tinfoil', but either an unfortunately timed technical failure or plain old incompetence seem far more plausible.

      I give you one thing, your theory is more plausible than the 'cyber attack' theory that was the excuse for this /. post.

    15. Re:Once was a tragedy, 4 times is an act of war by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

      It is just a theory obviously, and way back on my first post I posit that there was either negligence on the part of the naval crew, or some type of E-warfare to interfere with the naval vessel's radar, which should have seen and aided in the naval vessel avoiding the collision either by changing course or speed. These collisions were happening in low visibility and just pre dawn when most humans are at their least alert.

      1. Shipping lanes are open ocean (differentiating from harbors and inlets, etc). The busiest shipping lanes it the world are still not that crowded, with literal miles between ships. If you are thinking LA traffic you are sadly mistaken.

      2. Changing the commercial vessel's course a few degrees would not be noticeable, even by the crew, especially because the changes happened in the dark of night (the collision happened right around sunrise).

      3. By other sensors, you are assuming they had an accurate compass? It is a well known fact that compass readings can drift a few degrees from the generators in a large ship, which is why they are rarely consulted anymore. As far as obsevational navigation, that doesn't typically happen at night on cargo vessels unless there is a known hazard in the area. You give the crew far too much credit. These days everyone trusts GPS blindly (ever heard of death by GPS)?

      After the first collision, I was right there with you regarding the cause being likely a technical failure or incompetence. But this is the third T bone collision in under 3 months, whereas in the 26 YEARS prior there were a total of 4 surface ship collisions in the US navy, with the US navy doing everything the same (including crossing shipping lanes). Of those historical collisions, 3 were sideswipes with refuel/restock vessels that were close on purpose, and the 4th was a small fishing vessel trying to "beat the train" in front of an aircraft carrier and it got squished.

        The statistics of these type of collision make this far less likely to be some kind of system failure after the second incident. And we have already had a third collision already.

      --
      If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
  28. Brave Warriors? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...brave warriors..., seriously?

    Is the US at war, last time I checked, it wasn't.

    So the poor slobs below deck were just doing their jobs, as in jobs, not warrioring, or whatever it is you're trying to convey.

    The Mil PsyOps is getting bad here on /..

  29. "Updated: May 9, 2017" by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

    Early Monday, Indeed.

    The fishing vessel with no working GPS or radio, hit the navy ship mid port side. Oo

  30. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    The spending cuts didn't help, but the odds of a mid sea T-bone collision are extremely low to start with. There is clearly guidance (probably spoofed GPS) to line up these big tankers on a collision course and some form of electronic warfare to blind the naval ships radar to the approaching cargo ships.

    --
    If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
  31. You're looking at it wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Everybody seems to assume that it's the Navy vessels that were the subject of the attacks, when it's far more likely that it's the merchant vessels to have been attacked (with the object of the attacks being to disable the Navy ships).

    It's hard to do anything to a Navy ship -- their GPS uses encrypted signals, they have radars out the wazoo, and their control systems are protected against attack.

    A regular merchant vessel, however, is probably quite ripe for attack from a state-sponsored actor. Some maintenance guy at a shipyard can easily be bribed to put a USB stick into a control system to plant some malware.

    dom

    1. Re:You're looking at it wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While that is undoubtly true, there still isn't any excuse for a war ship to let itself get hit by a huge and slow moving cargo vessel or tanker - none at all.

      The navy crew should be alert at all times, with equipment and crew ready to fight or avoid a potential terrorist or military attack that's a bit more sophisticated (and much faster) than getting hit by a huge commercial vessel running at slow speed.

  32. Suspicions from whom? by quantaman · · Score: 1

    There's absolutely no evidence there was a cyber-attack.

    All we've had is a bunch of people speculating "cyber-attack" because it's a popular topic right now.

    The Navy isn't denying because they haven't finished investigating the accident and don't want to start publicly ruling things out. Maybe it will turn out to be a cyber-attack, but the currently available information is completely consistent with a dozen other scenarios that have nothing to do with a cyber attack.

    --
    I stole this Sig
    1. Re:Suspicions from whom? by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      The Navy isn't denying because they haven't finished investigating the accident and don't want to start publicly ruling things out.

      The military isn't the DMV, so that analysis falls short. Even after they finish an investigation, what they say to the public will be whatever they think is to the military benefit of the United States; they have no requirement to communicate openly or to hold public meetings, and they have no institutional theories telling them to be open and honest with information.

      Have you ever heard that carrots improve night vision? I did, all through school. Why? Was it because of science? No, it was because the military of the UK decided during WWII that it would help them to tell people that their pilots could see the enemy at night because England was growing lots of carrots for the war effort, and German pilots didn't have carrots. The goal was to hide the existence of coastal air defense radar as long as possible.

      It is the same as everything else. If it is about the military and their strengths and weaknesses, you won't know what those are. You won't be able to distinguish between the information that is intended to mislead the enemy, and the information that is legit leaks, and the information that is published because the military thought it wasn't important.

      Like with the F-35. People say stupid things, even thought they should be well aware that they don't even have a security clearance and that real military secrets aren't available to media broadcasters. Also, they should be aware that if the military can convince the enemy our new plane sucks, that is an advantage for us; just like if we could convince them it is better than it really is, that would also benefit us. With the F-35 the plan seems to be to leave them unsure if it is a super-plane or a boondoggle. The skepticism from the public about the plane is a great victory for US military communication. Anything that prevents the enemy from having accurate information about our capabilities is good for us. So you can never really know the details of the performance of military equipment unless it is sold on an open market and widely reviewed by private organizations.

      Even after the Navy completes their investigation, it is unlikely we'll know the details until some future date when it doesn't matter and they stop protecting the secrets. That remains true even if they release a report on the outcome of the investigation!

      Never believe The Man, but also never believe The Other Man, or The Little Man, or The Man That Knows The Secrets That He Didn't Keep Secret.

    2. Re:Suspicions from whom? by djinn6 · · Score: 1

      With the F-35 the plan seems to be to leave them unsure if it is a super-plane or a boondoggle. The skepticism from the public about the plane is a great victory for US military communication.

      Right. It's a great victory for communication, but it's a massive failure to secure the budget to buy them. That little trick only works if you're not working under a democracy, because nobody in their right mind would want a $100 million dollar plane if it can't even beat the competition that costs half as much.

    3. Re:Suspicions from whom? by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Well, even after it is explained to you, you still don't understand. You don't know that it can't even [blah blah blah]. That's the "communication" part, where you believed some bullshit because, well, because you're credulous and they took the time to mislead you.

      There isn't a funding problem, that's just you jumping to conclusions based on the false understand above. Real funding is decided by other people, many of whom get shown real information.

    4. Re:Suspicions from whom? by djinn6 · · Score: 1

      Right, and you just know everything because you have a top secret clearance and someone high up gave you permission to blabber about it on the internet. Get real.

    5. Re:Suspicions from whom? by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      You fell on your face with that one; knowing that secrets requires a clearance is what I was fucking saying above. If you could read, you'd know that. Not every single argument can be won by "I know you are but what am I," in some cases the whole fucking point is that there is a difference in information access and so you don't fucking know. You can in fact know that you don't know, simply because you don't have access to data.

      What we know is, the government controls the data, and the data in the media is horseshit. That doesn't mean we can't know if it is horseshit or not; if we couldn't tell the difference because we don't have the data clearance, then we'd already know we don't know anything.

  33. Re:A better theory by Shinobi · · Score: 3, Informative

    Except that the merchant ships were in a TSS, and the destroyer apparently tried to cross behind one cargo ship, ahead of another, and got hit by the third, that had been obstructed by the first cargo ship.

    The Fitzgerald also ran across a TSS

  34. So let me get this straight by OzPeter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A foreign state actor hacked into a US Naval Destroyer and with precision knocked out the steering to the ship at a critical moment where by it couldn't maneuver and was rammed by merchant vessel. And then moments later restored the steering to a working condition. Is that it? Do I have it right?

    As opposed to some mechanical/electrical malfunction happening at a critical moment causing said accident and the systems being manually reset after the fact.

    Yeah, right. Anyone who has ever worked with complex mechanical/electrical equipment knows that shit happens and that you don't need external actors to screw things up for you. And that goes without saying that the tropics are not an area that is conducive to nice, neat operations of equipment (consider the British destroyers that can't operate in the warm waters of the Middle East)

    So may I present exhibit "A". It's this sharp piece of metal in the form of a razor. Once owned by a chap named Occam.

    --
    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    1. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The big question is, fleet wide, how common are system errors during operation?

    2. Re:So let me get this straight by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      A foreign state actor hacked into a US Naval Destroyer and with precision knocked out the steering to the ship at a critical moment where by it couldn't maneuver and was rammed by merchant vessel. And then moments later restored the steering to a working condition. Is that it? Do I have it right?

      No, but if you could read you'd know that no technical details are being discussed, only high level causality. Only an idiot would even be willing to make an exclusive list of potential exploit types, much less narrow it down one weak theory to use as a straw man.

      If you apply Occam's Razor, the explanation that accounts for everything you said with the least assumptions is that you're ignorant of the details, and yet you jumped to conclusions anyways. It seems to actually account for it without any assumptions at all, since when you misrepresent the discussion, we already know that you're either ignorant or feigning ignorance. And we can resolve that easily with Hanlon's Razor.

    3. Re:So let me get this straight by OzPeter · · Score: 1

      A foreign state actor hacked into a US Naval Destroyer and with precision knocked out the steering to the ship at a critical moment where by it couldn't maneuver and was rammed by merchant vessel. And then moments later restored the steering to a working condition. Is that it? Do I have it right?

      No, but if you could read you'd know that no technical details are being discussed, only high level causality.

      It was reported elsewhere earlier to day that the steering was lost and then regained.

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    4. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pedant here.
      His name was William, and he was known as William of Ockham.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_of_Ockham

    5. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You assume they hacked the US naval destroyer. That is called a "hard target". How much more likely is it they hacked the civilian ship.. or maybe obfuscated the GPS information in the South China sea? What possible nation-state could have interfered with radio communications in the open seas?

      The rules of engagement tie down the U.S. naval warfighter... limiting their ability to react to direct threats.

    6. Re:So let me get this straight by jezwel · · Score: 1

      You can't ram a massive slow container ship into a nimble fast destroyer that is not adrift. The destroyer can run rings around a container ship, so either the destroyer was adrift with no power, or the eyeball lookouts on the destroyer weren't doing their job.

    7. Re:So let me get this straight by volmtech · · Score: 1

      The steering problem sounds fishy also. With two screws the ship reverses one of them and the ships veers to that side. I spent six years in destroyer engine rooms, we practiced that.

    8. Re:So let me get this straight by Shinobi · · Score: 1

      They crossed the path of other vessels, behind one, in front of another, and failed to cross in front of the third. There is suspicion that they may temporarily have lost steering due to the hydrodynamic effects of multiple wakes, swells and otherwise turbulent water, just like turbulent air behind a plane can cause planes behind it to lose lift/maneuverability.

  35. Of course not by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    If you believed that, you'd believe 39 of the 50 US states elections in specific counties were hacked ...

    Oh.

    Wait.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  36. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A tanker couldn't out maneuver a navy destroyer if they wanted to. Even if they tanker was trying to ram the destroyer it would take massive incompetence by the navy crew to let it happen. The fucking destroyer can turn on a dime compared to a tanker and easily out run it.

  37. Huh by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

    So THATS what it looks like when Windows crashes on a warship..... it actually crashes the warship.

    I take naming rights for the malware .... "Titanic" , it turns warships into icebergs for civilian ships to crash into.

  38. Re:You know what's really chilling and a bold risk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They should be using QNX.

  39. In related news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Russian hackers leave porn pages in browser history of married man

    Coburg, Germany - Does Putin have no conscience at all? Russian hackers apparently compromised the computer of a married man from Coburg, Germany, and left numerous links to porn sites in his browser history. It is unclear what caused the man to attract the attention of the Kremlin.

    Source (in German)

  40. Tomorrow Never Dies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone has been watching too many James Bond movies...............

    This is pretty much the plot of the 1997 James Bond film: Tomorrow Never Dies

    Although, I wouldn't put it bast the Sinclair Media Group to try to start a war for ratings...............

  41. Cockup not conspiracy by petes_PoV · · Score: 2

    Should four collisions in the same geographical area be chalked up to coincidence? Could a military vessel be hacked?

    Coincidence? No.

    Could the boats have been hacked? yes - but it's incredibly unlikely.

    What other possibilities are there? The 99% reason is stupidity. Either some idiot doesn't know how to drive a boat ( x4) or the standard naval tactics to "dominate" any given situation have been taken to extremes - beyond the capabilities of the people and equipment in use.

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
    1. Re:Cockup not conspiracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean the people who can't make change. We have dumb ed down a little to far.

  42. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You've been told that by the pigs getting their througs filled with all that juicy military spending on, oh, dowsing rods, fighter planes that barely fly, nevermind fight, and so on.

    The US spends more on its military and -related things than the next ten countries combined, or something to that tune. But it spends maybe ten dollars to achieve what other countries do with a dollar. That's the military industrial complex for you.

    Meanwhile, it's racking up debts like there's no tomorrow, and as soon as the chickens come home to roost, well... the higher you rise, the deeper you fall. In the case of the US, it'll take a lot of the rest of the world with it, especially its friends, better termed vassal states.

  43. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Contrary to war ships on patrol, tankers are rarely hiding in camouflage or lights out. Even ignoring that, any naval vessel should have the equipment and crew to either shoot an obstacle or potential attacker out of the water or give up their own right of way to avoid the collision.

  44. nope. sorry, that's not how it works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    The admiral's response was essentially "not a chance, but I don't want to waste my time explaining it to you"

    US Navy ships are not auto-guided by GPS or radar. Computers are not in the loop on the actuation of the rudders. The crew is supposed to use things like radar and GPS like they can use a sextant or bathymetry - as a supplement to th good ol' Mk I Eyeball.

    The crew seriously screwed up. Period. Another capain who got his command under Obama and his idiot SecNav Mr Mabus has just forfeited his carreer through sheer incompetence. I'm sure he and his crew know all they need to know about "tolerance", transgenderism, the use of over-priced biofuels, and being "a global force for good" - but they appear to be completely incompetent in navigation, seamanship, situational awareness, and the most basic naval operations.

    In each of these recent incidents, the crews only needed to do what American sailors have been doing for about two nd a half centuries: LOOK around with their eyeballs, and steer their vessel and adjust its speed accordingly. No computers are even involved in these basics.

    signed,
    a saddened Navy vet

    1. Re:nope. sorry, that's not how it works by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      Not just the captain. I bet the OOD's next posting (and it won't be long!) is as a supply officer somewhere really unpleasant until his/her commitment runs out. FWIW, what are considered the really awful places to get posted in the Navy?

    2. Re:nope. sorry, that's not how it works by myowntrueself · · Score: 1

      Surely theres also the culture of 'Murcanism ie "We're 'Murcans, everone haz 2 get the fuck outta our way cos we're 'MURCANS!"

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
  45. Re:A better theory by Shinobi · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's a reference video of the AIS tracks for the cargo vessels, collision handles shortly after the 50s mark.
    .
    https://youtu.be/vlrA36GzHNs

    Alnic MC is in a cluster of ships together with Team Oslo, Guang Zhou, Hyundai Global and a bit behind them was the Long Hu San
    Observe the evasive maneuver that first the Guang Zhou undertakes, and then the sharp turn to port the Alnic MC tries to perform, to avoid the collision.

  46. Which is still a failure on the part of crewmen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    who were supposed to be observing on all sides of the vessel for just such occurances.

    If they aren't paying enough attention to avoid a collision with a fishing boat, then they sure aren't paying enough attention for either military or terrorist attacks intended to take down the vessel.

    Based on these collisions I would have to that that whole fleet needs to go through new readiness training drills.

  47. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's a shame that you only remember the rumors and myths instead of finding out the facts. The aircraft carrier you're referring to is the USS Yorktown, which did suffer computer-related problems around 1997. But if the problem was just that the OS crashed, they could have just rebooted the damn thing!

    The actual problem was a crew member entered a 0 into a field in a network database, causing all of the software using the database to fail after attempting to divide by 0. The ship was dead in the water for under three hours and returned to port under its own power.

    In other words, this was a problem with the software running the ship, not the OS! Considering that most bugs are in the software running on the OS and not the OS itself, this should not be a surprise.

    dom

  48. Exhaustion by Guspaz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is a culture of overwork that results in severe sleep deprivation in the US Navy, and many people standing watch are impaired at an equivalent level to beign legally drunk. It's been the confirmed cause of other incidents before, and it seems a far more likely explanation than cyber attacks. Unfortunately, the Navy does not appear to be doing much to solve the problem.

    1. Re:Exhaustion by StevenMaurer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ding! Ding! Ding!

      We have a winner. I don't give a damn about any stupid GPS spoofing, you don't run ships into each other unless the crew is so absurdly tired that they're literally sleeping on watch.

      This is well known, and a cultural issue through all the services, especially more recently. It has nothing to do with funding or politics or any other bullshit.

    2. Re:Exhaustion by sabbede · · Score: 1

      That doesn't make sense unless the ships are undermanned or the officers are worse at scheduling duty hours than an assistant manager at Burger King. Besides, how tired do you have to be (while still awake) to miss an oil tanker?

    3. Re:Exhaustion by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      Let me link to this description of one person's daily schedule aboard a destroyer:

      https://np.reddit.com/r/navy/c...

      It starts with this, and then goes into detail:

      I averaged 3 hours of sleep a night on my DDG and CG. Sometimes I'd go days, 48-36 hours, depending on scheduling, before I could catch more than a 90 minute nap over lunch in my shop.

    4. Re:Exhaustion by sabbede · · Score: 1

      Holy crap, that's unacceptable. A command failure. I don't know if they're under crewed or worse than that awful manager I had at BK all those years ago, but neither of those should be the case.

  49. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The warship was hit on the port side, which is a strong indication it had the right of way." -- Have to agree with you there.

    However, when on the water the first responsibility of ANY ship is to AVOID COLLISION if possible. Nobody, esp large ships, want to smash up and claim "but we had the right-of-way".

    Statistically most probable reason for collision when a fair-weather night at sea? - The assigned lookout(s) were not paying attention, KISS. Friend in USCG who makes his living doing after action reports on marine collisions. Every case he has ever told me about was simply the lookout not doing his job.

  50. Bad Link by mamba-mamba · · Score: 1

    The first link in the Slashdot description is to a story about an incident from May (the wrong collision).

    --
    By including this sig, the copyright holders of this work or collection unreservedly place it in the public domain.
  51. Heck yeah, cyberattacks, that's what it is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And not undertraining and snafus in the navy! Definitely!

  52. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

    How could any of us forget that article about the 'US Battleship' disabled by Windows NT? It was linked here on Slashdot an average of forty times per article.

  53. Unblocked porn sites/unlimited bandwidth by jtara · · Score: 1

    All a hacker would have to do is hijack the ship's wifi, and provide unlimited bandwidth to unblocked porn sites.

    It's the only explanation for nobody noticing those huge cargo ships...

  54. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The Air Force doesn't have carriers, dumbass.

  55. Fairy tale vs Sea Story ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    A fairy tale starts with. "Once upon a time."

    A sea story starts with, "Hey, this ain't no shit."

    So hey ... this ain't no shit from a 9-year naval vet:

    Naval ships have collision warning systems.

    There's a "ding, ding, ding" to alert crew.

    That's when eyeballs gather around radar, and secret guy stuff.

    Also, the watch scans the horizon with binoculars.

    If collision systems are "frozen" or spoofed, it could be a "drunk walk" algorithm that increases the probability of a collision.

    My shipmates were never comfortable with the first report.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  56. Re:You know what's really chilling and a bold risk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    No, they should be using GHS INTEGRITY or similar for every mission critical computer. But inevitably, someone with a lot of say wants the feature richness that comes with Windows, Linux, etc, and makes an exception somewhere, e.g. to allow the UI to run on a less stable OS than the back end / control systems.

  57. Frigate Aquatic Governing School by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They learn this at the elite Naval school: Frigate Aquatic Governing School

  58. Say, um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If a "cyber" attack, even one that did damage it was not intended to do, cripples a US Navy vessel's computer, and as a result it crashes, (one,) and sailors are injured or killed, (two,) which both seem to have been the case here... is that meaningfully different from an attack that exploits a hole in a ship's defenses?

    For example, suppose someone opposed to us realized that the radar of some naval vessel does not transmit when it's pointed directly aft, over the transom, meaning it can't see, (in radar, at least,) right directly behind it, so anything that can hug the waterline, (and how damned funny would it be if this were a real vulnerability?!?) but not be actually under it, essentially a flying carpet of sorts, being pulled by a flotilla of tiny, fish-shaped, wriggling-for-propulsion underwater drones, could sneak up behind a vessel, conforming to the shape of the surface of the water, invisible to radar, and laden with high explosives and maybe shrapnel, could come up behind a boat, glide under, affix itself to the hull and detonate, sinking the ship.

    If someone discovered that could work, tried it out on a US Navy vessel, and in so doing injured or killed a bunch of our sailors, (to say nothing of the other, more subtle harm, that the loss of that vessel, even if only temporarily, would represent, plus the cost of fixing it in purely economic terms...) wouldn't that... um... constitute an act of war?

    How is tricking our sailors into hurting themselves (by screwing with their ship's guidance,) morally or ethically, or legally different from just actively planting or throwing or shooting a bomb, actually, and blowing the ship up?

    If we HAD a real goddamned president, instead of a sad, angry, stupid, sub-moronic, Faulknerian Idiot Man-Child, narcissistic incompetent, sexual predator and child molester, illegally occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., when he can be BOTHERED to be there, when he can be pulled away from his fucking GOLF GAME, we'd be finding the people responsible, and kicking the living dog-shit out of them.

    But instead, we're gonna do nothing, because it was the Russians, and they control our government now by having installed someone whose IQ is LITERALLY about the same as his shoe-size, (I don't mean that as a throw-away insult, I mean his intelligence quotient, that is, his mental age (MA) divided by his physical age (PA,) given that he's about 70 and he's got the mentality of about maybe an eight-year-old, and 8 / 70 = 11.4, or about, which if he has decent-sized feet for his height, it's not hard to imagine he'd wear an 11 1/2, which is actually slightly LARGER than his IQ).

    Hence, on top of everything else he is, he is literally (and yes, I know what that word means,) more mentally retarded or impaired, if you prefer, than the TEXTBOOK DEFINITION of an IMBECILE.

    It's such a fucking DISGRACE that that shitsack was and is suffered, by our useless spineless dickless heartless worthless brainless congress, to pretend to be a president of this once-great, but now basically dead, zombie nation.

    This country has SEPSIS, is dying, and the illegal, fraudulent installation of Russian puppet, Putin's Dick-Ornament, clown in chief, was the knife in the gut that let all the raw sewage in America's bowels have direct access to its blood stream is RESPONSIBLE.

    In other words, we're fucked, and I'd sure hate to be in the Navy right now, since they're all, every one of them, worldwide, high-value targets who have no hope of defending themselves, using easily compromised, off-the-shelf-shit for mission-critical applications, and are about to get fucked, quite possibly out of existence.

    For any who marvel at this post, I'd like to point out that whatever fuckery was done to that destroyer's guidance system, could probably ALSO be done to a nuclear ballistic missile submarine. An armed one.

    Sleep tight tonight. And good luck, people.

    1. Re: Say, um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait - let me get this straight. On top of being a thin skinned president that will react to the slightest provocation, trump also won't react to a provocation?

  59. Chain of Command by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Funny

    The buck stops at one of the 16 White House staff members who have been fired. But it definitely doesn't stop at the top. Trump's Navy has the most spectacular crashes. Big, beautiful crashes that we can all be proud of.

    If you can't stand the heat, stay off the golf course.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:Chain of Command by blindseer · · Score: 1

      I remember someone saying something about the chain of command. Oh, I found it...

      "You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til ya understand who's in ruttin' command here."

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  60. Re:You know what's really chilling and a bold risk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But it was a relatively new ship, was probably running Windows 8. Kind of gives new meaning to a Windows crash.

  61. Re: A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the US? Even if they had slashed the military budget by 75% they wouldn't know what to do with all the money.

  62. No. by DerekLyons · · Score: 0

    No, the Navy doesn't "suspect" cyber attacks. They don't "suspect" anything at this stage of the investigation. This article is nothing but irresponsible clickbait.

    This is probably fueled by the many rightwing nutjob sites that have already pronounced the accident to be an attack. The same nutjob websites that whupped up fears of a US Army takeover during Jade Helm and pronounced that the USS Enterprise was rigged with bombs so Obama could sink it on it's last deployment and start a war.

  63. There's a simpler explanation by dtandersen · · Score: 1

    Lack of sleep. Sailors are allowed inadequate time to rest.

  64. Trump inherited Obama's navy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The simplest explanation is probably the correct one. Thanks Obama!

  65. Whoever wrote this is a clueless moron! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was a Shrimp Boat Captain (I've already heard your 10,000 Gump jokes, thank you)

    By Admiralty law, the Captain is responsible for not hitting another vessel, *period*.

    Any fool who depends on any electronic device instead of his own eyes and ears for navigational safety does not deserve to be Captain or even crew on a vessel.

    Radar and GPS are very nice toys, but the minute you trust or depend on them, you are totally FUCKING incompetent.

    1. Re:Whoever wrote this is a clueless moron! by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Never Google 'Shrimp Boat Captain Urban Dictionary'.

      Just don't.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  66. Re:A better theory by Holmwood · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sort of.

    Navy funds have generally been more available for new ship construction with training and operations spending coming under financial stress in recent years. This makes administrations look good, and politicians of all stripes love the shipbuilding financial spending that flows into a great many districts. Yet it can leave operational readiness stretched.

    Add the gender integration of the service. For whatever reason (likely a high operational tempo and longer deployments by the USN compared to some navies) a significant number of deployed female naval personnel are becoming pregnant; in 2016, 16/100 female sailors deployed had to be transferred back to shore. No one wants to talk about this, understandably so, as there are no easy answers.

    There is no additional funding for this; it cost the Navy $110m last year, and places huge stresses on those remaining -- both male and female -- who often have to step in without adequate backup and training. Even simply providing additional funding won't magically solve the problem, as a loss rate of 16/100 is quite high, and it can occur somewhat unpredictably, hitting certain commands harder.

    It's speculation but I'd guess that many collisions are down to watchkeeping errors and/or one or more people falling asleep on watch. Terrible, but possibly comprehensible given the stresses many crews are under.

  67. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The warship was hit on the port side, which is a strong indication it had the right of way.

    If I recall my Power Squadron training from 45 years ago, if you're nimbler you don't assert right of way with a tanker

  68. Re:A better theory by wyHunter · · Score: 1

    You said: Seriously! Moar (sic) social spending is the solution to, well... pretty much everything, or so I've been told. THANK YOU! "Moar" is cretinous. Thanks for adding 'sic'

  69. Cyber attacks, no... gassing and abduction, yes. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is how the "illuminati" operate. They don't care whose navy those ships belong to or what naive notions you have about how the world works. For what we know it might have been a direct message to the traitorous senator himself not to buckle while fighting against the truth.

  70. Nah, still too complicated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Still too complicated. Try:

    What's the bet that they were all looking at fucking computer screens, pads and phones and not looking out the window?

  71. Remember the Maine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject for further details.

  72. Bad bug most likely in radar /navigation system. by bongey · · Score: 1

    Having work military "certification" testing, the test are usually the most ideal conditions such that systems always passes. The test are usually set up just so it sorta works, the contractor gets paid and the military can say look at my new toy.
    My bet is on the navigation system/ radar system has a bug in which big ship under the right conditions just disappears from radar or the navigation system incorrectly plots the other ships vector.

  73. it's the John McCain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    of course it crashed. i'm surprised it hasn't done so several times already.

    (yes i know, John S McCain...)

  74. Eclipse blindness? by Tablizer · · Score: 0

    Some in the chain of command have been staring into the sun.

  75. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's a really sharp left turn at 0:55.
    Can a tanker do that, or is this a clue the AIS might have been on something smaller?
    ( Which would indicate a deliberate attack. )
    Or more likely, the navy 'helped' the ship with the turn ;-)

    The navy really should publish a video with their track along with these.
        For unfortunately, all these collisions.

    It's hard to understand how the navy's lookouts for visual, ais, and radar could have not seen this.
    This should not be a human fatigue issue.
    If they were crossing the shipping lane, then they should have been especially alert.

    The plan of not publishing naval ship location data with ais to make the fleet safer doesn't seem to be working.
    (It may be costing more ships than it is saving.)
    It wouldn't cost much opsec if the navy were to start turning on their ais when they are this close to the shipping lane.

  76. Not so simple, maths says! by cutefatbird · · Score: 1

    All these accidents are not happening to the far more numerous: mine ships, cutters, amphibious assault ships, carriers, support ships, patrols ships, LCS etc they have all happened to our high end air defense ships and only those with ballistic missile defense capability and even then only ships in sailing in Asia around the South China Sea and Korean peninsula! The Mathematical possibility of this being a random series of events is way to low to brush it off. Also when the MacCain tragedy was first reported CNN stated "The destroyer had lost ability to steer the ship just prior to the accident." Now that statement looks to have been removed and has not been repeated this (And many other factors.) makes me suspicious

  77. Mmm Mmmm mmm Mm! [Re:Why] by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    We saw how well that technique worked in Titanic.

    1. Re:Mmm Mmmm mmm Mm! [Re:Why] by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      You mean the Olympic, right?

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    2. Re:Mmm Mmmm mmm Mm! [Re:Why] by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      She admitted she made poor decisions with regard to email.

    3. Re:Mmm Mmmm mmm Mm! [Re:Why] by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      I think you posted in the wrong thread, but in case you weren't aware, it was the Olympic that was struck by a naval vessel, not the Titanic.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  78. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yup. COLREGs. Active Watch must be maintained at all times, and a "Right-Of-Way" is no excuse for insisting on a Collision:
    Rule 5: ‘Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight as well as by hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.’

    Stand on Vessels- There are no "Rights-Of-Way" in the COLREGs
    Rule 17:(b) "When, from any cause, the vessel required to keep her course and speed finds herself so close that collision cannot be avoided by the action of the give-way vessel alone, she shall take such action as will best aid to avoid collision."

    No matter how this is looked at, the Navy Ship is in the wrong. It has the maneuverability to stay out of the way of a Tanker that takes miles to come to a stop, and the responsibility to do so.

  79. Re: A better theory by Strider- · · Score: 1

    There is no "right-of-way" on the water. Either you are the give-way vessel, or the stand on. It is entirely possible for both vessels to be give-way. If the tanker was confined to its lane due to the local traffic scheme, then by definition it is the stand-on vessel, as its maneuvering is constrained. If you are the stand on vessel, you are actually not supposed to change course or speed so as to be predictable to the other vessel. Of course if there is a chance of imminent collision, you do what you can.

    Anyhow, if the warship in question was crossing a charted traffic scheme, it is by definition at fault.

    --
    ...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
  80. No Just No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any hack that's capable of causing a destroyer to collide with another ship is also capable of revealing its location. Knowing the location of US navy ships is far more valuable than causing a couple of collisions. Any country that has this ability would never waste it on something so miniscule.

  81. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 0

    I'm really wondering how retarded the /. crowd or americans in general are.
    GPS works like navigation by the stars. Instead of aiming with optical instruments at real stars, you 'aim' an artificial receiver towards satellites (artificial stars).
    So, if you spoof the GPS location by 'overwriting' the signals(light) from the 'artificial' star, all ships in that region have the same 'spoofing error'. It is close to impossible to spoof one ship to change course to the left, and another one to change course to the right, so that they collide, because they both have the same spoofed misplacement.

    There is no magical 'GPS' that tells you where you are (or that can be 'hacked' and you can figure where someone else is), the little GPS receiver is calculating itself where it is! Imagine, you are walking through a plain. You have a mountain (one GPS satellite) in front of you. One mountain (GPS satellite) to the right, a bit in front of you. One mountain (GPS satellite) a bit behind you to the left. You easy can pinpoint your position in relation to those mountains. You are deciding where you are, not the mountains (GPS).

    You want to travel to the mountain in front of you. Now someone spoofes the positions of those mountains, and you change course. So that you believe that you are still heading to the mountain in front if you.

    Every ship around you, regardless what course, would make exactly the same course correction!! If you shift 5 degrees to the right, every other ship would do the exact same thing! (Regardless to where they are heading)

    That can not lead to collisions!

    And bottom line: navigation does not work that way anyway. You use the magnet compass for hours until you change course.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  82. Re:You know what's really chilling and a bold risk by ttyler · · Score: 1

    Any military power using anything from Microsoft.

    You laugh, but this has already happened with catastrophic results as expected: https://gcn.com/Articles/1998/...

  83. Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Remember the US carrier fleet commander who got into an argument about who should change course with a lighthouse?

    I figure it's much more likely that the captain demanded the traffic (driven by or for nignogs, clearly, it's the middle east) change course and played chicken with a tanker that has no chance of complying due to their massive size.

    1. Re:Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by GingaFlash · · Score: 1

      Remember the US carrier fleet commander who got into an argument about who should change course with a lighthouse?

      That was a joke which never actually took place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... & http://www.navy.mil/navydata/q...

      I figure it's much more likely that the captain demanded the traffic (driven by or for nignogs, clearly, it's the middle east) change course and played chicken with a tanker that has no chance of complying due to their massive size.

      The accident took place in the straits of Malacca which is hardly the middle east. If the Captain was so arrogant as to play chicken he could've just sunk the merchant ship when it got to close. Most likely cause was probably weather reducing visibility (heavy fog/mist is quite common in that area) so they didn't see the ship until it was to late.

    2. Re:Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by LesFerg · · Score: 2

      That was a joke, reworded many times and debunked even more times.

      --
      If I had a DeLorean... I would probably only drive it from time to time.
    3. Re:Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      That was a joke, reworded many times and debunked even more times.

      Even a joke carries a kernel of truth. And the truth is american exceptionalism doesn't play well with others. So of course we're going to get these kinds of incidents. You have to change the american psyche and that my slashdotter friends is mission impossible.

    4. Re:Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by hawguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Remember the US carrier fleet commander who got into an argument about who should change course with a lighthouse?

      That was a joke which never actually took place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... & http://www.navy.mil/navydata/q...

      I figure it's much more likely that the captain demanded the traffic (driven by or for nignogs, clearly, it's the middle east) change course and played chicken with a tanker that has no chance of complying due to their massive size.

      The accident took place in the straits of Malacca which is hardly the middle east. If the Captain was so arrogant as to play chicken he could've just sunk the merchant ship when it got to close.

      It'd take an awfully crazy Navy captain to sink a foreign flagged ship in a public shipping channel.

      Most likely cause was probably weather reducing visibility (heavy fog/mist is quite common in that area) so they didn't see the ship until it was to late.

      That might be a valid excuse if either vessel was a 20 ft sailboat, but a 2 billion dollar Arleigh Class destroyer has 6MW worth of radar. Even my friend's 30 foot boat has a 4KW radar system than can see ships miles away through heavy fog and rain.

      If it can't see a 500 ft tanker approaching, what chance does it have in wartime?

    5. Re:Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by bestweasel · · Score: 3, Funny

      Maybe it was a stealth tanker.

    6. Re:Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about everyone waiting until the Navy investigates the incident and release their findings. And they will release their findings to the public because the incident is so well known.

      "If it can't see a 500 ft tanker approaching, what chance does it have in wartime?"
      What will it do in wartime? From the pictures it doesn't appear their weapons capability was effected by the collision so they could fire off every weapon it has before the ship went under. And that one ship has enough fire power to level a small country all by itself.

    7. Re:Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by hawguy · · Score: 2

      "If it can't see a 500 ft tanker approaching, what chance does it have in wartime?"
      What will it do in wartime? From the pictures it doesn't appear their weapons capability was effected by the collision so they could fire off every weapon it has before the ship went under. And that one ship has enough fire power to level a small country all by itself.

      Getting rammed by a slow moving civilian tanker and then firing off every weapon it has before sinking doesn't sound like a great wartime strategy.

      The main land-attack weapons load for an Arleigh Class Destroyer is 56 tomahawk missiles with a high explosive or cluster-bomb warhead. The 100 kiloton nuclear warhead option has (supposedly) been retired. Most of the rest of the weapons are for air or sea defense, not much help in a land attack.

      While it could take out a small city (or more usefully, key military and infrastructure targets in the city), it's hyperbole to suggest that it can level a small country.

    8. Re: Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by zaphirplane · · Score: 1

      You mean the guy with parrot at the top of the mast couldn't see the other ship, obviously need more carrots in their diets http://www.snopes.com/food/ing... ( carrots as disinformation for radars in ww2)

    9. Re:Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by fgouget · · Score: 0

      it's hyperbole to suggest that it can level a small country.

      Hmm.... Vatican? Monaco?

    10. Re:Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given the location, perhaps Singapore?

    11. Re:Arrogant and ill trained US navy crew. by Pherdnut · · Score: 1

      Ingenious. They can't blame anybody for the oil spill if they don't know you're there.

  84. Re:A better theory by Shinobi · · Score: 2

    Modern cargo ships can do fairly sharp emergency turns, but it was also helped by the destroyer. Fortunately for the McCain, the cargo ship was ballasted, so not running full cargo, and it was going fairly slowly(around 9-10kts only, IIRC).

  85. YES by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    BINGO!!!

    They conducted operations in the south china sea and were preparing to pull into singapore.

    Those who have been in the navy.. especially those who have been in deck, know it's extremely likely that that bridge crew went straight from conducting missions and drills simultaneously... then was made to prepare the ship cosmetically for a port visit.. and then was required to prepare the mooring stations for getting into port... and was then required to go to the bridge and stand watch.

    This means days without sleep... not to do anything important... but to sweep, paint, and pretend to fight fires so the CO can look good on his fitrep.

    I don't know how many more people need to die for these faggots but I can promise you they'll be the last ones to care about anyone but themselves.

  86. can we stike North Korea back or will be seen as by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    can we strike North Korea back or will be seen as an 1st strike and chain be forced to help nk?

  87. Re:You know what's really chilling and a bold risk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and java...

  88. Easy to diagnose. by Tjp($)pjT · · Score: 1

    Employ an inertial navigation system on board that backs up the GPS. Alarm when difference is great enough. Then fly an aircraft at high altitude and see if it's GPS agrees with the surface ships. Spoofing an aircraft at altitude where its GPS antennas are directional to the 180 degree horizontal plane and upwards is tough. Laser gyro inertial nav is also resilient so ... easy to detect.

    --
    - Tjp

    I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!

    1. Re:Easy to diagnose. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one said anything about spoofed GPS. This isn't your car navigation system. It's a billion dollar warship with multiple and redundant navigation systems (including actual human beings positioned on either side of the ship looking for obstacles!)

      Just like the incident in June, the commanding officer on duty at the time of the collision will be kicked off navy ships permanently and the sailors who failed to do their jobs will be disciplined as well.

    2. Re:Easy to diagnose. by Shinobi · · Score: 1

      Except that INS need to be recalibrated ever so often, and the rougher the conditions, the more frequently it has to be recalibrated. So you never rely on INS for your primary navigation system either.

  89. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by Sir+Holo · · Score: 2

    ... running an OS that's been cost-shaved by a company that REFUSES TO LET ITS SECURITY TEAM MAKE CRITICAL CHANGES because the Security Director is told, every single fucking time "your proposed security improvement will cost us money. get lost and come back when you have a quotes security quotes fix that actually makes us some money".

    ...

    Not off-topic here...

    That is what I think of every time I boot into Windows 8.1, which insists on telling me that I am exposing myself to danger (my fault) if I turn off the Microsoft-written and integrated "Windows Virus Defender" (or whatever it's called) from scanning and updating whenever it feels like doing so.

    I mean, really... Come on... The "antivirus protection" comes WITH the OS that I installed, and was written by the same company! It's basically a tacit admission that "we write bug-riddled code, which must be monitored, so included in the OS itself is a 'threat-monitor'."

    Who the fuck made the decision to make that argument to the purchaser, and who the fuck wrote that system dialog? It defies all logic.

  90. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

    You're thinking of a different incident.

    It was a battleship, not a carrier.

    And yes, it did indeed require towage back to port.

  91. Not invented here culture plus carelessness by swb · · Score: 1

    My guess is that while the combat systems on these ships are awesome and they're probably also capable of awesome electronic navigation, but some kind of "not the Navy Way" mindset causes them to do things the old fashioned way and not rely on modern navigation systems when they're not feeling vulnerable.

    The combat radars are turned off and the information sections are probably lightly staffed at 3 AM in friendly waters. The rest of the crew is doing business as usual and navigating the old fashioned way *and* being really lazy about it, assuming that everyone else is doing their job so they can slack off. It's 3 AM, and we're just cruising.

    You could literally spend $5000 on recreational marine displays, radar and AIS and totally avoid this accident. AIS in particular -- ships *broadcast* their position, heading and speed and it shows up on screen, allowing even recreational boaters to set collision prediction alarms. Even recreational radar can track targets and show predicted paths against the vessel's own path. Why isn't this being done on the bridge of Navy ships?

    But it's been explained to me that the Navy doesn't like to do this way, they have the staff and bridge space to do manual plotting and there's some kind of belief that it's superior.

  92. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    The warship was hit on the port side, which is a strong indication it had the right of way.
    Actually it is a strong indicator that the warship had no right of way.

    The trade vessels are in a "sea water street". That is either an imaginary "road" in the water or a "road" that is marked with buoys.

    The traffic in the sea water street has priority and right of way. As the war ship was hit in the side, it obviously crossed said street. And hence had the duty to give way to any other vessel in the street.

    But that is not the issue. Everyone involved in "traffic" might it be on real streets in a car or at sea in a ship has to take care that accidents are avoided. How both ships managed to not be able to avoid each other is indeed a good question.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  93. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Moor sick spending!

  94. Cyberattack? by nospam007 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"

    These are warships, supposedly capable of detecting supersonic enemy planes on attack vectors as well as missiles, hundred of miles away and they are unable to detect a fucking container-ship as big as a skyscraper 50 yards away?

    1. Re:Cyberattack? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. China and Russia have been wasting time researching new anti-ship weapons. They just need to send some merchant vessels to plough straight through the apparent non-existent defenses.

    2. Re:Cyberattack? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just coz they're stupid doesn't mean they're not malicious and it shouldn't get them off the hook.

      If any science advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic, any stupidity resulting in enough damage is indistinguishable from a malicious attack.

  95. Re: A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

    There is no "right-of-way" on the water.
    Are we nitpicking again?

    What is the difference between "right of way" and "stand-on vessel"?

    For a layman there is none ... and actually as I have a diploma in nautics, I really wonder at what you are aiming, because for me there is none, too.

    Anyhow, if the warship in question was crossing a charted traffic scheme, it is by definition at fault.
    Correct. But on the other hand .... it is an american war ship ... cough, cough.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  96. Re:A better theory by ravenshrike · · Score: 1

    Military ships work off of separate encrypted GPS signals. So yes, one could spoof just the commercial signals, just the military signals, or both to create the collision conditions.

  97. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by swillden · · Score: 1

    does anyone else remember the "flagship US airforce carrier"

    Wow, the Air Force has carriers now? I'll bet the Navy is really pissed about that.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  98. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You do realize that there are several separate radar systems on a destroyer that would have to be spoofed to hide the ship from sensors. And then the records kept by all of those radar systems and the navigation and combat systems they interface with would have to be altered to show a record of the ship in a different spot than what was displayed. And US Navy ships don't get system updates at sea, so this would have to be planned months or years in advance.

    Also commercial traffic uploads it's location to satellite tracking regularly. Those logs have been compared to the collision course and found to match in all but the most recent case. Once the most recent one is investigated, it will most likely match also.

    And of course this is in addition to somehow spoofing the GPS for one ship but not the other. Yes the military has access to encoded GPS signals that offer more precision, but they also have access to the civilian bands, making this much harder to pull off. Spoofing the GPS signal is very unlikely, more likely would be hacking a commercial vessel's navigation system.

    The shear complexity of the hacking scheme you are proposing would be insane. don't attribute to malice what could just as easily be incompetence. The 2 most recent accidents happened in the middle of the night when commercial ships are generally on autopilot with nobody at the helm. The autopilot can adjust course to avoid other ships but US Navy ships do not broadcast their location like commercial traffic does, so the auto pilot wouldn't know the destroyer was there. There would have been about a dozen men on the destroyer in a position so potentially see an impending collision, what are the odds some were not properly trained and others were either asleep or not paying attention during a boring 3rd shift watch. These accidents happened because of human error and the fact that the US Navy does not broadcast it's position to other ships or employ automated navigation systems on their vessels.

  99. There is some weird stuff going on by hord · · Score: 1

    Here is a related article from one of the other collisions: http://www.reuters.com/article...

        q[... the ship's commanding officer, executive officer and master chief, would be removed from the vessel because "we've lost trust and confidence in their ability to lead."]

  100. Re:You know what's really chilling and a bold risk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Also know as the last time the US Navy used Windows to run anything important on a ship. Everything is Linux based now.

  101. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are several rules of the road on the open seas. Another rule of the road I would like to mention is the law of gross tonnage, basically the least maneuverable vessel has the right of way. A destroyer can out maneuver ships considerable smaller than itself, an oil tanker is barely able to maneuver at all. Also there is the fact the US Naval vessels do not transmit their locations like commercial ships do, and in exchange the Navy assumes responsibility for avoiding accidents with commercial traffic.

    It's like if a 747 hit an F22. It doesn't matter which plane had the right of way if only one was able to avoid the collision and the other one didn't even know another plane was in the area.

  102. Hmm, maybe the sailors were in a rush by BLToday · · Score: 1

    This is Singapore and there's a lot of "activities" that sailors can partake in. They totally want some of those famous chili crabs and barley drinks. Maybe a walk along Orchard Road before taking in the bountiful and beautiful views from Orchard Tower.

  103. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by link-error · · Score: 1

    WannaCry now?

    --
    -Unresolved symbol? Byte me!
  104. There is no hack that should work by Excelcia · · Score: 5, Informative

    There is no single hack that should work to cause an accident like this. It doesn't matter if GPS is hacked or even off. It doesn't matter if your navigation system is faulty or given the wrong information. It doesn't matter if your radars are down. The fact of the matter is, ships have been navigating in congested waters at night for hundreds of years and there is no hack that should serve to cause a collision.

    Bridge watchkeepers are supposed to be trained in heads up visual navigation. GPS, ECPINS, AIS, navigation radars - they are all useful tools, but a watchkeeper is supposed to be trained to know when those tools are lying to to them. Because it really isn't a matter of if, but when something will happen to cause one or more of those tools to lie to you. This is especially true of warship watchkeepers who are supposed to be trained to operate in places where there may be denial of service for GPS or where AIS is being spoofed.

    I wrote about something like this before - almost two years ago. American warships have a reputation in NATO as being driven by amateurs. During fleet manoeuvers, the rest of us actively plot wider safety bubbles around American ships because they are erratic and have a tendency to simply go the wrong direction and just not care.

    This isn't a cyber attack. There is no attack on anything on the American ship that should have defeated the watchkeeper's mark 1 eyeball, and hacking a container ship to hit a warship with is like hacking a semi truck and thinking you are going to use it to ram a dirt bike on an open field. It's simply not possible to hit a warship with a container vessel if the warship has a watchkeeper that is awake.

    1. Re:There is no hack that should work by emaname · · Score: 1

      Exactly.

      Someone please mod this up.

      --
      An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
    2. Re:There is no hack that should work by hawguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      American warships have a reputation in NATO as being driven by amateurs. During fleet manoeuvers, the rest of us actively plot wider safety bubbles around American ships because they are erratic and have a tendency to simply go the wrong direction and just not care.

      That's because the *are* piloted by amateurs (relatively speaking).

      A merchant marine captain will spend his entire life in the same career track, building on and enhancing his skills. A Navy captain will have gone through extensive training in school, then work his way through various specialties (engineering, communications, weapons, etc) before he finally gets his command, so he's got much less experience as a merchant marine captain. And even when in command, he's responsible for hundreds of sailors instead of the dozen or two that a merchant vessel would have.

    3. Re:There is no hack that should work by Grishnakh · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On top of all that, the US Navy does all kinds of dumb stuff no one else does. First, they use English units for stuff, so when they're communicating with other ships, they'll give them distances in yards instead of meters. They also give bearings in a completely different way: absolute instead of relative like everyone else. Also, merchant ships have something called AIS so they can see where other ships are. The Navy routinely turns theirs off so people can't see where their ships are on ship-tracking websites. Merchant ships have a small crew and short chain of command, and captains can just call each other on the radio and discuss their intentions, but the Navy has a long chain of command between the captain and the helmsman and the captain never talks to other captains on the radio. Finally, merchant captains mainly just worry about navigation and such, and don't have to deal with stuff like discipline problems for a crew of hundreds. Navy captains don't have that much time actually running a ship, and frequently do it for a short time before being shuffled off to desk duty somewhere.

      Basically, the US Navy's entire structure for managing a ship is optimized for war-fighting with young recruits, and not at all for navigating a ship in crowded channels with merchant vessels. And the people who become merchant captains are people who have sea-going and captaining a ship in their blood and dedicate their lives to it. The people who become US Navy captains are there because being a military officer is a stable career and it's a stepping stone to a cushy desk job as an admiral or at least a cushy retirement package after only 20 years in the service.

      There was a really good opinion piece about this recently by a some captain I think, but I can't seem to find it now.

    4. Re:There is no hack that should work by quiet_guy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Most of your post is paraphrased from a recent gCaptain article that was equally erroneous. US Navy ships give distances in nautical miles just like the rest of the maritime world. Contrary to your claim, no vessel I've ever spoken to uses relative bearings on the radio - because that only makes sense if I know your heading to start with, so I can do the math to figure out what you mean. "off my starboard bow"? Sure. I can see that one. Long chain of command between captain and helmsman - sure, if long = about ten feet. Helmsman works for the Officer of the Deck, who works for the CO. Merchant version? Helmsman works for the Officer of the Watch, who works for the Master. Navy captains never talk on the radio? Guess I was confused every time I did. Every CO I know has a radio next to their chair on the bridge, and uses it when required. Yes, I'll let the Officer of the Deck try first - because that's how they learn - but I'm going to step in if we need to. How do I know this? Five years at sea in command of US Navy ships.

    5. Re:There is no hack that should work by Pax681 · · Score: 1

      at least a cushy retirement package after only 20 years in the service.

      Speaking as an Ex-Serviceman myself.. I EARNED my pension as does every other service man and woman by virtue of their service for their country.
      Yet another amateur contortionist A La Steve Bannon methinks...

    6. Re: There is no hack that should work by zaphirplane · · Score: 1

      And yet it happened, so how did they not notice the other ship on a collision course

    7. Re:There is no hack that should work by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      Were you silent when they came for private sector Pensions?
      Did you speak up when they came for Union pensions?
      Where you concerned when they attacked teachers pensions?
      Did you raise the alarm when they undermined public sector pensions?


      Make no mistake, they'll get to you soon.

    8. Re:There is no hack that should work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's good to hear from someone with actual experience. I checked your posts and don't see your opinion, sorry if I've missed it, but based on your experience what do you think are the most likely causes?

    9. Re:There is no hack that should work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This sounds like BS. I'm no ship captain but I know my way around a boat and have read up on naval history enough to know a lot of this is wrong.

      >First, they use English units for stuff, so when they're communicating with other ships, they'll give them distances in yards instead of meters

      Nobody uses meters on the sea. Everything is in nautical units like nautical miles and knots. There is a very good reason for this, the same reason reason we use metric for most things, it works really well in context. Knots and NM translate really easily into long/lat coordinates and make doing that math easy to get a fairly precise idea on your position. One NM is one minute of latitude.

      >They also give bearings in a completely different way: absolute instead of relative like everyone else.

      Also wrong. Everyone gives absolute bearings. Giving relative doesn't make sense. How am I supposed to know your bearing without being able to see you or you telling me? Absolute never changes.

      >Basically, the US Navy's entire structure for managing a ship is optimized for war-fighting with young recruits, and not at all for navigating a ship in crowded channels with merchant vessels. And the people who become merchant captains are people who have sea-going and captaining a ship in their blood and dedicate their lives to it. The people who become US Navy captains are there because being a military officer is a stable career and it's a stepping stone to a cushy desk job as an admiral or at least a cushy retirement package after only 20 years in the service.

      This is an opinion. I agree that merchant captains really do love the sea, or at least the money and lack of real world BS while they are at sea. But that doesn't mean Naval captains don't love the sea either or that all of them are cut rate captains and seamen. I do however think there is something really fishing going on with the 7th fleet though. 4 accidents with colliding with things easy to avoid in one year is bad. They are starting to remind me of the old pre-war asiatic fleet. Of course those guys were fine seamen, their issues had more to do with decorum and discipline.

    10. Re:There is no hack that should work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And here you are posting in Slashdot instead of avoiding collision with some merchant ship...

    11. Re:There is no hack that should work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if you are responding to me.. I was a British Soldier not American ;)

    12. Re:There is no hack that should work by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2

      From where I stand, McDonalds register operators and WalMart shelf stockers perform some of the most important service for our country. Without the people driving the trucks and maintaining the roads and power service, the military would collapse in a week--right behind the collapse of America as a whole.

    13. Re:There is no hack that should work by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      responding to Pax681. I agree that service men and women earn their pension. I grew up as an Army Brat, the lifestyle takes a toll.

    14. Re:There is no hack that should work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was once on a Navy "mike" boat coming into the (well marked) channel at Pearl Harbor, perfectly clear day, mid afternoon. All the helmsman had to do was stay in the channel and away from the reefs on either side. I watched bemusedly as the the boat completely missed the channel and was heading directly for the reefs and disaster. Calmly pointed out to the helmsman that the channel was actually about 200 yards to the starboard side and maybe we should turn around...

    15. Re:There is no hack that should work by Pax681 · · Score: 1

      From where I stand, McDonalds register operators and WalMart shelf stockers perform some of the most important service for our country. Without the people driving the trucks and maintaining the roads and power service, the military would collapse in a week--right behind the collapse of America as a whole.

      hmm you are aware that there are ( I'll use British here but this works for America too...) Army engineers who an fix the road, fix and maintain the trucks. The army ,navy and air force have rather good logistics and you know.. have lots of portable generators and stuff that can keep the unit going to assist in whatever is going on. mind you.. you are obviously flamebait/trolling to have come up with such a retarded response. If not.. then wait till the next natural disaster hits your area or civil disorder escalates like it seems and you will soon come to appreciate the men and women who volunteer to serve.. unlike you

    16. Re:There is no hack that should work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what are your thoughts on why the US Navy's had the number of collisions in one geographic area this year?

    17. Re:There is no hack that should work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On top of all that, the US Navy does all kinds of dumb stuff no one else does. First, they use English units for stuff, so when they're communicating with other ships, they'll give them distances in yards instead of meters. They also give bearings in a completely different way: absolute instead of relative like everyone else. Also, merchant ships have something called AIS so they can see where other ships are. The Navy routinely turns theirs off so people can't see where their ships are on ship-tracking websites. Merchant ships have a small crew and short chain of command, and captains can just call each other on the radio and discuss their intentions, but the Navy has a long chain of command between the captain and the helmsman and the captain never talks to other captains on the radio. Finally, merchant captains mainly just worry about navigation and such, and don't have to deal with stuff like discipline problems for a crew of hundreds. Navy captains don't have that much time actually running a ship, and frequently do it for a short time before being shuffled off to desk duty somewhere.

      Basically, the US Navy's entire structure for managing a ship is optimized for war-fighting with young recruits, and not at all for navigating a ship in crowded channels with merchant vessels. And the people who become merchant captains are people who have sea-going and captaining a ship in their blood and dedicate their lives to it. The people who become US Navy captains are there because being a military officer is a stable career and it's a stepping stone to a cushy desk job as an admiral or at least a cushy retirement package after only 20 years in the service.

      There was a really good opinion piece about this recently by a some captain I think, but I can't seem to find it now.

      Basically, the US Navy's entire structure for managing a ship is optimized for war-fighting with young recruits, and not at all for navigating a ship in crowded channels with merchant vessels?

      Ah...the US Navy trains to navigate in Mined waters, restricted waters, etc. Clearly you have never been in the Navy...any Navy in ANY country. Because if you had been, you would realize that every single ship in the world, operates their ships the same way the Navy does. I would say that the Merchant ships are less structured than the US Navy is. I would also say that the Merchant ships have less training than the US Navy does. Especially since the Navy typically does drills on a daily basis and on a quarterly basis.

      so when they're communicating with other ships, they'll give them distances in yards instead of meters? Ah...there are no Navy Vessels in the world that use Meters in anything other than directing guns. All Navy's around the world use Nautical miles which is broken down in yards.

      https://www.quora.com/While-on-a-Royal-Navy-ship-do-sailors-use-miles-or-kilometers-to-express-distances

      Merchant ships have a small crew and short chain of command, and captains can just call each other on the radio and discuss their intentions, but the Navy has a long chain of command between the captain and the helmsman and the captain never talks to other captains on the radio.

      Wow...again, you show that you have never been in the Navy. Merchant Ships the Helmsman reports to the Officer of the watch, who reports to the Commanding Officer. In the Navy, the Helmsman reports to the Officer of the watch, who reports to the Commanding officer. So you can't compare the two since they are identical. Oh and the Captain does more certainly speak on the radio. I served two tours on a ship in the Navy, and was a Helmsman and Quartermaster. I will say with 100% certainty that the Captain of my two ships did speak on the radio

      They also give bearings in a completely different way: absolute instead of relative like everyone else? Wow...again you have no clue as to what you are discussing. Relative bearings are only good for shipboard activities...IE, Conn, Sonar, contact bearing 25 d

    18. Re:There is no hack that should work by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2

      Oh there are some fantastic engineers in the military; there just aren't enough of them to run the whole damned thing. They're reliant on being able to source parts, which come from a company which sources materials. Those are all predicated on having a population that can actually eat and live.

      It's been said that, at current technology, a nation's military can be as much as 10% of its population before the nation can't keep up and collapses under the strain. That number may be higher with constantly-advancing technology, but it's not very high.

      As for the next disaster, I wonder how many military could volunteer to help if they're all busy doing all the farming, road repair, oil refining, communications infrastructure, and power generation for the entire United States. Currently we expend several times as many American workers on keeping all of that running as we have in the military in total; if we ceased that, then the military might have to somehow make inroads to the entire continent to provide aid--how, I have no idea, because there wouldn't exactly be an abundance of material aid to provide, seeing as how our production and distribution networks for things like food would collapse promptly.

      I live in a country where we look down on the hard-working men and women who keep everything running. Construction workers who must be too stupid to think for themselves, only able to walk back and forth carrying bricks and bolts. Burger flippers who can't get a real job. Retail cashiers who must have failed middle-school, or else they'd be scientists or astronauts. People who work hard, think on their feet, and have to interact with customers. People who we interact with every day. People we rely on for survival. One day without these people and there will be riots; one week and there won't be a country left, only blood, starvation, and tribal groups of confused and terrified men and women who don't understand why their shower stopped working.

      I am tired of hearing that the only people who serve our nation are those who join the military machine. I am tired of the great body of hard-working, dedicated Americans being looked down upon because they chose to serve on the front-lines of our nation's greatest needs, to provide the very life-blood that keeps us going. I am tired of being told that there are so very few men of notable worth, that they are unimportant because they did not simply chose a particular job to get started out of high school.

      It goes and it goes, all the way down to the poor who struggle to survive, but whom we attack continuously for their failure. We threaten to take away their very means to live for not being as glorious as the rest of us. They are too dirty and poor for our concern. I am tired of the downwards social comparison and I have no particular care to tolerate it.

      Good luck getting a handful of men to run an entire continent. Perhaps while you are at it you can pass a new welfare bill by which we tax only the military servicemen, and they surely can provide for all of our needs so the rest of us need do nothing.

    19. Re:There is no hack that should work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are exactly correct sir! I'll add one cautionary note: While ships maintain radio silence while in open waters (mostly), it's up to the CO to exercise due diligence when in proximity of a port especially a busy port. This is why the Captains lose their commands and Junior Officers get booted. In all four collisions this year, I bet my last dollar its laziness and inattention - which can also happen to merchant vessels.

    20. Re:There is no hack that should work by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Excelsia above (a Royal Canadian Navy officer) says you're a bunch of amateurs, and considering that you've wrecked 4 ships now just this year alone seems to prove it.

      Also, why would you give distances in nm when you're close enough to be using yards or meters?

      And why don't you use AIS?? You didn't address that point did you?

      I'd love to see you refute the gCaptain article.

      Here's another good article from gCaptain that discusses some of the ways the US Navy fails to produce decent captains, and here's yet another that discusses how basic seamanship simply isn't a focus in the US Navy training programs (instead, officers brag about their lack of sleep!! WTF!). It sure looks to me like the US Navy has no business piloting their own ships, and should instead outsource that job to *real* captains who are actually competent to do the job. You've proven now, over and over, that you aren't.

    21. Re:There is no hack that should work by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      First off, do you have any clue how to properly quote? It doesn't look like it. Your message is very hard to read. Anyway...

      Because if you had been, you would realize that every single ship in the world, operates their ships the same way the Navy does.

      This Canadian Navy officer disagrees:
      https://it.slashdot.org/commen...

      I would say that the Merchant ships are less structured than the US Navy is. I would also say that the Merchant ships have less training than the US Navy does.

      These guys both disagree:
      http://gcaptain.com/us-navy-lo...
      http://gcaptain.com/separate-e...

      Navy officers are generalists rather than specialists, so all that extra training doesn't help much with basic seamanship.

      Finally, here's that article I was looking for, written by an actual captain:
      http://gcaptain.com/uss-fitzge...
      plus his follow-up article:
      http://gcaptain.com/uss-fitzge...

      I thought this quote from the last link was quite important:

      The over 100 Facebook and forum comments from 100% civilian mariners, however, most agreed that they have a low degree of confidence predicting the response and/or communicating with US Navy warships in busy shipping lanes.

    22. Re:There is no hack that should work by Pax681 · · Score: 1

      As for the next disaster, I wonder how many military could volunteer to help if they're all busy doing all the farming, road repair, oil refining, communications infrastructure, and power generation for the entire United States

      hmmm... interesting as providing power generation for the whole US isn't at all what I said but hey.. take that idea and run with it if ity makes you feel better :-)

      I am tired of hearing that the only people who serve our nation are those who join the military machine. I am tired of the great body of hard-working, dedicated Americans being looked down upon because they chose to serve on the front-lines of our nation's greatest needs, to provide the very life-blood that keeps us going. I am tired of being told that there are so very few men of notable worth, that they are unimportant because they did not simply chose a particular job to get started out of high school.

      I NEVER said only those that join the military serve the nation.. NEVER ONCE.. but again , you took it and ran with it :-)
      I am not looking down upon anyone at all,. where did you draw that from?? me denying the theory that walmart and MacDonalds bods are not on a level or higher in serving their natiuon as military??.. well yes i said that but not to the denigration of the workers in those two places.
      You seem to have quite a high level of butthurt about you in this matter eh?
      As for your welfare bill..LOL.. that's some seriously weak sauce and I mean SERIOUSLY bud
      even my ten year old flames better bait than that me laddo! :-)

    23. Re:There is no hack that should work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hack, probably not. Electronic Warfare? Maybe. Good ECM could make the radar operators either not see the tanker, make them think it was a much smaller boat, or believe it was somewhere other than where it really was.

    24. Re:There is no hack that should work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I spent many years in the Navy. It was a rare captain that was worth a damn. The ranks are mostly filled with 'yes' men who have their lips surgically sewn to their superior's asses. They've lost the ability to think for themselves most of the time need to ask for permission to even wipe their asses. They are terrified of doing anything that has a remote chance of displeasing someone with a star because the Navy seems to relieve captains of command regularly. They will jump at nearly every opportunity they think will win them points with their superiors and cycle the shit out of their crews. There's a culture in the upper ranks that drives away the truly good people

    25. Re:There is no hack that should work by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      I NEVER said only those that join the military serve the nation.. NEVER ONCE.. but again , you took it and ran with it

      That's the implicit narrative. It's what people hear when people constantly say "join the military, serve your country" and never calls anything else "service".

      I take it you're British, so maybe there's a cultural issue here. In the U.S., many just call the Military or the Police "the Service", and will outright say that people who didn't join the military "never served". We have a direct dialogue that you're not worthy and haven't served your country if you aren't military.

      This generates all kinds of artifacts. For a while, there was an organization here calling around and getting pledges from executives that their companies would practice discriminatory hiring practices by only hiring unemployed military Veterans when a candidate pool included one who was adequately qualified--not the best candidate, but "can do the job and is an unemployed military man". The suggestion was that if you're not military, you don't deserve a job, and they'll throw you the scraps from the table after taking care of our servicemen.

      So from my perspective... yes you did. Maybe I'm reading wrong due to a giant body of seawater between our two nations.

      interesting as providing power generation for the whole US isn't at all what I said

      My argument was that a military can't operate without a strong economy behind it; yours was that the army has some engineers. I don't think those engineers can possibly keep an orphaned military running all on their own: their supply chain would collapse.

      The military supply chain isn't just the military; it's the entire production chain which supplies the military. That production chain also needs supplies. The military's job is basically to be a door guard in front of the supply chain, mainly so that the supply chain can sustain itself.

      Perhaps, again, the context didn't come across the first time.

      As for your welfare bill..LOL.. that's some seriously weak sauce and I mean SERIOUSLY bud

      It was an absurd argument to reflect yours. I said that without the people maintaining our country's infrastructure, the military's supply chain would collapse, as it gets fed by the productive infrastructure of our entire nation; you said the military has engineers that can fix roads. Well, okay, then let's see the military keep the whole god damned country running, since that's exactly what needs to happen if the supplies are going to keep flowing to the military.

    26. Re:There is no hack that should work by Thelasko · · Score: 1

      I've heard some chatter about loss of rudder control. That would do it.

      You think a ship's rudder is still controlled mechanically?

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  105. Clearly there is no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clearly there is no incompetence in the military, and they are capable of performing the most basic of naval vessel duties "steering a boat", so the most obvious answer is that it is an external "bad actor" - I wonder how many road crashes can be explained away so easily?

  106. Coincidence by pgn674 · · Score: 1

    Once is happenstance.
    Twice is coincidence.
    The third time itâ(TM)s enemy action.
    - Goldfinger

    1. Re:Coincidence by djinn6 · · Score: 1

      30,000 car accident deaths a year. Enemy action or human nature?

  107. Re: A better theory by Shinobi · · Score: 1

    A stand-on vessel that treats it as being right-of-way can still be given the lion's share of blame in the case of a collision, for failing to undertake evasive maneuvers, or for violating other parts of Colreg. In this case, the McCain was nominally the stand-on, but they were crossing a TSS in an unsafe manner, while the cargo ship was in the TSS lane, the JSM will most likely be given the majority of the blame. Despite nominally being the stand-on. If stand-on equalled right of way, the JSM wouldn't even be in doubt.

    So no, it's not nitpicking. It's being factually correct AND accurate.

  108. Microsoft... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The simplest and most obvious cause.

  109. Cancer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You need to embrace the cancer that will end your life.

  110. Commercial vessels as torpedoes by RubberDogBone · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't be funny if everyone is looking at the hypersonic anti-ship missiles as the next big threat, while somebody has clearly figured out you can take out major USN ships with nothing more than cheap commercial vessel? You don't even need a warhead. In both of these recent collisions, ONE HIT from non-explosive attack wiped out comms, killed crew, almost killed the captain, and did a LOT of critical damage to what was supposed to be an armored military ship.

    This should not be happening in the first place. But it ALSO should not be so spectacularly successful. Are we making ships out of tin cans? How is being hit causing this much damage, and what does it say about what a real anti-ship missile would do?

    Nothing good is what it says.

    --
    Sig for hire.
    1. Re:Commercial vessels as torpedoes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It says to affirm our belief in a life full of hard knocks, even if we're floating in a large steel Flight I ship. Fortune is fickle. It doesn't really favor anyone.

    2. Re:Commercial vessels as torpedoes by djinn6 · · Score: 1

      The merchant ship is much more massive. It's 100 feet longer than the destroyer and it hit the destroyer in the side.

      Modern-day warships are not armored, at least not in the traditional sense where you'd have 20-inch thick steel plating around the ship. It turns out that against bombs and missiles, even that much steel plating is pretty useless, so they traded away protection against old-fashioned naval guns for more speed and agility. After all, there's no point protecting the ship if it couldn't arrive on the battlefield in time to participate.

    3. Re:Commercial vessels as torpedoes by fnj · · Score: 1

      armored military ship

      You don't have a clue in hell what you're talking about. Destroyers have NEVER been armored in history. They don't call them "tin cans" for nothing. As a matter of fact, NO naval ships were ever "armored" the way you're thinking. Even battleships had no more than a narrow belt of armor at the waterline, and some armoring of decks and turrets. Well below the waterline, and above the waterline, there's nothing much there. Look how the South Dakota had her upperworks shot to hell in night action at Guadalcanal, mostly from small to medium caliber hits. Her communications, radar, and fire control were all wrecked.

      The hull plating of a destroyer is like an eggshell. By comparison, tanker and cargo ship bows are built much sturdier, and the shape makes an excellent ram.

  111. Re:You know what's really chilling and a bold risk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would give different meaning to BSOD, the Blue Sea of Death.

  112. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by PPH · · Score: 1

    I'll bet the Navy is really pissed about that.

    We'll show them! We'll get some airplanes!

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  113. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by PPH · · Score: 2

    a crew member entered a 0 into a field in a network database

    The first time the Navy has had a ship disabled by a zero since WWII.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  114. navigation vacation? by Lost+Penguin · · Score: 1

    Can it be that Russia "could be" a threat? /LOL, gotta love the alt-right wingers saying that Russia is better than Democrats.

    --
    I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
  115. TFA is simply trolling by s.petry · · Score: 1

    I should have been more direct because TFA says all you need to read.

    Should four collisions in the same geographical area be chalked up to coincidence? Could a military vessel be hacked? In essence, what if GPS spoofing or administrative lockout caused personnel to be unaware of any imminent danger or unable to respond? The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) says there's no reason to think it was a cyber-attack, but they're looking into it: "2 clarify Re: possibility of cyber intrusion or sabotage, no indications right now...but review will consider all possibilities," tweeted Adm. John Richardson.

    I happen to love good Conspiracy theory. Like the Magic Bullet for JFK, lots of good questions about 9/11. The difference between the good theories and this is that the good ones have facts you need to really think about and chase down.

    I find it much more likely that the ship lost power and made a classified distress call, but backup could not get there in time and they didn't want to notify the cargo ship to change course (or made that call way too late).

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  116. how do you spoof radar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All of these ships have radar. If GPS were down and even if they didn't know where they are, they'd still notice big hunks of metal approaching them.

  117. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by clovis · · Score: 1

    I think y'all are talking about the cruiser Yorktown hat was disabled by a software problem.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    It could not have been the aircraft carrier Yorktown because the first Yorktown carrier was sunk at Midway in 1942, and the next WWII Yorktown carrier has been a museum ship in Charleston SC since the 1970's.

    And it was not any of the battleships due to their being decommissioned and mothballed around 1991, and after that any travel was pretty much by tugboat.
    If anyone has a link to an article saying otherwise, I'd like to see it.

  118. Re:A better theory by hawguy · · Score: 1

    I'm really wondering how retarded the /. crowd or americans in general are.
    GPS works like navigation by the stars. Instead of aiming with optical instruments at real stars, you 'aim' an artificial receiver towards satellites (artificial stars).
    So, if you spoof the GPS location by 'overwriting' the signals(light) from the 'artificial' star, all ships in that region have the same 'spoofing error'. It is close to impossible to spoof one ship to change course to the left, and another one to change course to the right, so that they collide, because they both have the same spoofed misplacement.

    I'd think that if someone wanted to spoof GPS to make a single ship alter course, they'd plant their spoofer near the GPS antenna(s) on the ship and jam it from there. It may be difficult to do so on a naval vessel, but less difficult on a merchant vessel who relies on local vendors for maintenance while in port.

    There is no magical 'GPS' that tells you where you are (or that can be 'hacked' and you can figure where someone else is), the little GPS receiver is calculating itself where it is!

    Isn't that little GPS receiver the magical 'GPS' that you'd jam?

    You want to travel to the mountain in front of you. Now someone spoofes the positions of those mountains, and you change course. So that you believe that you are still heading to the mountain in front if you.

    Every ship around you, regardless what course, would make exactly the same course correction!! If you shift 5 degrees to the right, every other ship would do the exact same thing! (Regardless to where they are heading)

    That can not lead to collisions!

    but now imagine that you want to jam just the one GPS receiver -- so instead of moving the mountains (which is hard), you paint a picture of the mountains on a sheet, and fly it in just in front of the guy you're trying to spoof. Only he sees the spoofed mountains and no one else does.

    And bottom line: navigation does not work that way anyway. You use the magnet compass for hours until you change course.

    So you start with a tiny course deviation, just a few degrees, but you keep it up for hours. The navigator dismisses it as a compass error (after all, GPS isn't wrong), but over 20 or 40 miles, it can end up miles off course and may think he's far from traffic on the AIS plotter even as he's on a collision course.

    Of course a ship won't rely on GPS or AIS, and will use Radar and vision (both with the naked eye and night vision) to watch for traffic. And that's why GPS spoofing should not result in a collision. not because it's impossible to spoof GPS for a single vessel.

  119. Or just actually drunk by Darkling-MHCN · · Score: 1

    Or they were actually stoned and / or drunk.

  120. Re:You know what's really chilling and a bold risk by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

    The problem with INTEGRITY is that there's almost no one left who still knows how to work with it. It's only used in the military anyway, and even there it's been dying out. You can't use people skilled in Linux to work with it, because companies only want to hire people who already are experts at something, so the talent pool is now nearly elderly and retiring. All the young engineers are familiar with Linux so that's what ends up getting used even if it isn't the greatest choice.

  121. Re:A better theory by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Here's a movie of what happened. One of the ships is unfortunately not shown, but the tanker made a very sharp turn into the warship. It's hard to think of a scenario where that was a good idea. Maybe there was more than one warship, and the tanker was trying to avoid the other warship.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  122. Same advice for sailors as given to drivers by fox171171 · · Score: 1

    Put the smartphone away and pay attention to what you are doing.

  123. Tin foil hat time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Typical of the zrazy rubbish that appears in the US media.
    The real cause is just plain old incompetence - something the US navy is widely known for. If someone had been posted on watch, as they should have been on a navy ship, there is no way this would have happened. If a merchant ship can get close enough to crash into US navy ships without detection, what hope would they have against the most advanced naval powers?

  124. Bitch please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cyber attacks? NO. The issue here is that the United States Navy is run by MORONS in the most literal sense of the word.

    This is a top down issue.

  125. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How could any of us forget that article about the 'US Battleship' disabled by Windows NT? It was linked here on Slashdot an average of forty times per article.

    It wasn't a battleship.

  126. Re: A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sail before steam: the most manoeuvrable vessel gives way. Only amongst equals do you worry about who's on port or starboard tacks (paths).

  127. Not another Windows 10 update story. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is getting old.

  128. Nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not even a minor consideration. Thanks for guessing.

  129. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Haha, perhaps the 'tanker' is a warship, too?
    I watch later, thanx for the link.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  130. Re:A better theory by fnj · · Score: 1

    I don't think the morons are paying attention to scientific facts. You bring to mind the stupidest line of dialog i ever heard from a WW II movie: "Johnson, take a reading with the compass so we can tell graves registration later where to find those bodies we buried." The half-wit writer actually thought a compass magically tells you exactly where you are, latitude and longitude!

  131. Re:A better theory by fnj · · Score: 2

    "The accuracy of the GPS signal is identical for both the civilian GPS service (SPS) and the military GPS service (PPS). Civilian SPS broadcasts on only one frequency 1575.42 MHz, while military PPS uses two 1575.42 MHz and 1227.60 MHz."

    "Once upon a time, the unencrypted signal included a random error factor that would make the civilian GPS randomly wrong in a different direction each day. I believe it started with errors up to 400 meters, which was still plenty accurate for general ocean navigation. The policy / feature was called “Selective Availability” and was killed in 2000."

    https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-difference-between-military-GPS-data-and-civilians-in-terms-of-accuracy

  132. Re: A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Right of way implies that other traffic must give way to you. Approaching a roundabout, traffic on the roundabout, or entering from my right, has right of way. That is true whether the traffic is a truck, a car, a car being towed by another car, a bicycle, or a horse and cart. On the water it is usually more complicated than that. As a 30ft yacht under sail coming out of Southampton harbour, I am the stand-on vessel to the yacht crossing from my port, the give way vessel to the container ship overtaking me (because it's restricted by draft in the shipping lane), the stand-on vessel to the small powerboat crossing from starbord (because sail has precedence over power, other things being equal), the give way vessel to the RIB dead ahead (because it is a dive boat and is flying a flag indicating it has divers down), and the stand-on vessel to the yacht overtaking me under power.

    So saying "I have right of way" isn't terribly helpful. "Right of way" as a phrase is better suited to roads where navigation is limited and relatively simple. On the sea, the situation is generally more fluid and complex. Instead of a mindset of "I have right of way, I don't need to worry about that ship because it doesn't" you need a mindset of "There are many ships I need to avoid, some I can expect to maintain a predictable course, others may not. I should maintain a predictable course until this point, and then I perhaps should adjust course because of x, y and z. That one is alert and manoevrable and I expect will move to avoid me soon, but I need a plan B if for some reason it doesn't. That other one isn't going to notice or care about me, so I need to avoid it." Of course on the water you have time to do all this thinking and planning. But it's not a case of "Oh, there's a boat approaching. Yeah, I've got right of way. Cool, I'll stop worrying and go back below".

  133. Re:A better theory by Strider- · · Score: 2

    Well, yes, and no.. The higher chipping frequency of the P(Y) code (the military signal) makes it more resistant to jamming. Also, being able to decode both signals allows the receiver to calculate the density of the ionosphere, and thus be far more accurate. The biggest source of error is signal delay induced by the (variable) ionosphere. This delay is partially dependent on frequency, so by measuring the delta between the civilian and military signals, you can thus factor the ionosphere out. It's a really cute trick.

    --
    ...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
  134. Re:A better theory by Strider- · · Score: 1

    The "Law of Carnage" and/or "Right of Weight" isn't actually part of the colregs directly. The collision regulations generally adhere to the concept that the more maneuverable vessel gives way to the less maneuverable. However, none of the determining factors are based on the size of either vessel directly. Rather, determining factors are things like vessels that are constrained by draught or by channel are the stand-on vessel. So if you're bayliner running around at the mouth of a river, and a freighter comes ot, you had better believe that the Freighter is the stand-on vessel. However, that's not because it's a big ship, but rather it's confined to channel and/or constrained due to draught.

    --
    ...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
  135. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    but now imagine that you want to jam just the one GPS receiver -- so instead of moving the mountains (which is hard), you paint a picture of the mountains on a sheet, and fly it in just in front of the guy you're trying to spoof. Only he sees the spoofed mountains and no one else does.

    And how exactly would you do that with radio waves when every ship in range would recieve the same fake picture?

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  136. Re: A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    It is nitpicking, and wrong.
    As the war ship was crossing a shipping lane it has no stand-on rights.
    So ... while you basically explain everything correctly, a nitpicking examiner would let fail you for that question :)

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  137. The WRONG is strong in this one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On top of all that, the US Navy does all kinds of dumb stuff no one else does. First, they use English units for stuff, so when they're communicating with other ships, they'll give them distances in yards instead of meters.

    BFD. When ships are trying to navigate past each other, the difference between yards and meters doesn't matter.

    They also give bearings in a completely different way: absolute instead of relative like everyone else.

    Nobody gives a shit about that. When you're talking to another ship it's "Hey, I'm the destroyer 3,000 meters/yards off your port bow. What are your intentions?"

    Also, merchant ships have something called AIS so they can see where other ships are. The Navy routinely turns theirs off so people can't see where their ships are on ship-tracking websites.

    Ship tracking websites are utterly fucking useless when you're navigating in congested areas like the Straits of Malacca/Gibraltar.

    Merchant ships have a small crew and short chain of command, and captains can just call each other on the radio and discuss their intentions, but the Navy has a long chain of command between the captain and the helmsman

    Except on the actual bridge, where if things are tight the captain is right there, and might even take the conn, making the chain of command captain->helmsman. Worst case, it's captain->OOD->helmsman.

    and the captain never talks to other captains on the radio.

    WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!!!!

    What fucking rectal database did you pull that completely incorrect statement from?!?!?!

    How the fuck would you know? Did you read it somewhere on the internet?

    I've been there - YOU ARE UTTERLY FUCKING WRONG!!!

    Finally, merchant captains mainly just worry about navigation and such, and don't have to deal with stuff like discipline problems for a crew of hundreds. Navy captains don't have that much time actually running a ship, and frequently do it for a short time before being shuffled off to desk duty somewhere.

    Basically, the US Navy's entire structure for managing a ship is optimized for war-fighting with young recruits, and not at all for navigating a ship in crowded channels with merchant vessels. And the people who become merchant captains are people who have sea-going and captaining a ship in their blood and dedicate their lives to it. The people who become US Navy captains are there because being a military officer is a stable career and it's a stepping stone to a cushy desk job as an admiral or at least a cushy retirement package after only 20 years in the service.

    And all of that is fucking irrelevant when the ship is navigating congested waters.

    The problem is more likely inexperienced junior officer(s) on bridge watch who don't properly handle situations. The USS Spruance once ran right into Andros Island because the dumbass OOD was too scared to turn towards a surfaced sub over a fucking mile away. US Navy training is so collision-averse that junior officers are scared to get too close to other ships. So while trying to figure out what to do to avoid that sub, the Spruance ran right into Andros Island. Geez, if you don't want to turn towards that ship, JUST FUCKING STOP. That island won't do anything to you if you sit still.

    That training - and all the ways the Navy trained me to handle other ships, which was mostly make a plan way in advance - worked fine out in the middle of the ocean when there were only two ships involved.

    But it doesn't work when you need to THINK, and it fell apart even more rapidly in crowded shipping lanes when it takes 5 minutes to make a plan that'll be no good 30 seconds later, and while you're trying to figure out what to do you run into a tanker or Andros Island.

    Hell, I remember being OOD at the end of an exercise, we were headed in the wrong

    1. Re:The WRONG is strong in this one... by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      I think the problem is the children's programming these people have been exposed to. Have you seen how long they take to make a decision on Dora or Little Einsteins? Real life doesn't wait for, leave the slow kids behind and get stuff done.
      Caveat, I probably watch to many cartoons, and I'm impatient.

  138. Well somethings up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Given how advanced these ships are, one has to ask how they cannot detect a collision? Or better yet, how does a merchant ship collide with a ship without the same kind of warning? I would think after the second mishap someone should have been asking better questions.

  139. Re:Bad bug most likely in radar /navigation system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's all fine on a submarine. But this was a destroyer, you know, surface ship with large windows. No amount of navigation system bugs will remove a huge container ship from view of those large windows.

  140. Re: A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes indeed. Ultimately it's incumbent upon both ships to avoid a collision

  141. Re:A better theory by Shinobi · · Score: 1

    That sharp turn to port is a last-minute evasive maneuver. You can see how the Guang Zhou made an evasive maneuver to starboard also.

    Basically, the destroyer tried, in full darkness, to cross a busy TSS, through a cluster of cargo ships. It managed to cross behind one of them, in front of another, but the third was not detected, and that's what hit them. Presumably, it was obscured by the other cargo ships until too late.

  142. Re: A better theory by Shinobi · · Score: 1

    No, the examiner would give me a full pass, because I show that I understand that the ColRegs are not rigid rules, that it always depends on the situation.

  143. How do you crash into a ship at sea like that? by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    Look, I don't know anything... no claim to expertise... I'm just genuinely baffled as to how you collide with a ship at sea in these circumstances.

    Is the visibility poor? If you couldn't see the other ship that is an issue... though, I would think a naval craft would have optics that could see at night and through fog.

    As to notions of "well maybe they were hacked"... if that matters at all, then the system is badly designed because a ship like that should be manned at all times when underway. You don't just put it on automatic and then space out.

    I can see a ship being taken off course by a hack... maybe being run into a reef or something that wasn't seen below the water line. But a collusion between surface ships at sea? It just seems like incompetence is the only answer. I say this acknowledging that I really don't know what is going on here... just some guy :)

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    1. Re:How do you crash into a ship at sea like that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A lot of statements now are claiming that the fishing vessel hit the navy ship, rather than the other way around. Apparently the fishing vessel had no radio and did not respond to horns or whistles to stay out of the way. The navy ship was ~8 times the length of the fishing vessel so realistically the navy ship should have right of way in that situation as it is nowhere near as maneuverable.

      Although if this is true we should be grateful the navy sailors did not fire on the fishing vessel (as they may well have done had it been in other international waters), which could have ignited a real international crisis.

      So if the information we have so far plays out then the incompetence is coming from the fisherman, not the US Navy (not that there is any shortage of incompetence there).

  144. You're right.... by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    Let America launch the "War on Incompetency"...

    Based on passed wars such as the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty, we can expect an increase in incompetency, if that is possible to imagine.

    1. Re:You're right.... by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

      ....OK... What we are talking about here (a covert attack on US naval sips) has nothing to do with past social programs for starters. There is no way that a massive tanker can sneak up on one of these ships unless their radar has been tampered with. Under normal circumstances, Navy ships can see everything to the horizon on their radar. The way radar works, the closer these cargo ships got, the larger their signature, and automatic proximity alarms would have gone off, as well as the radar officer seeing the cargo ship long before then.

      So the US would have been better off according to you letting the drug free for all of the 1960s continue, nevermind most of those drugs we know today have long term effects, often causing permanent damage to the brain.

      And instead of the war on poverty, we should just let those at the lowest levels of society try to manage not to starve with no assistance to try to elevate them back into self sufficiency, as was the case in the late 1800s?

      Were there unintended consequences? Sure.
      Were there people who fell through the cracks? Sure.
      Were both efforts worth it? History says yes.

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  145. Indians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not a conventional attack. It's just Indians being Indians and doing the needful. Sometimes they just fuck up your Toys R Us order and sometimes they fuck up your radar/traffic system. Or banking software or medial equipment or...

  146. Re:A better theory by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    That sharp turn to port is a last-minute evasive maneuver

    I don't think that's right.......what was it evading? It didn't collide until after it turned.

    Basically, the destroyer tried, in full darkness, to cross a busy TSS, through a cluster of cargo ships

    How do you know that? The destroyer isn't displayed in the movie.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  147. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by sethaw · · Score: 1

    No, they have the correct incident but are just referring to it as the wrong type of ship. There have been multiple ships named USS Yorktown but the one that was in service in the 1990s was a cruiser. There have been 2 carriers named USS Yorktown, one was sunk in 1942 and the other decommissioned in 1970.

    It was originally reported that the ship had to be towed back to port but there is some disagreement as to whether or not that actually happened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  148. Re:A better theory by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

    He suggested physical infiltration of the ship and attaching a GPS spoofer right near the receiver, such that the square of a few meters away is a much-stronger-signal than the square of a few hundred meters away.

  149. Those who do not learn from history .... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... are doomed to repeat it. Too much time spent at drinking parties at Annapolis.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  150. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by swillden · · Score: 2

    You're thinking of a different incident.

    It was a battleship, not a carrier.

    No, the USS Yorktown, CG-48, is a Ticonderoga-class cruiser. The US doesn't have any battleships in service, and didn't in 1997 when the incident occurred. The previous USS Yorktown, CV-10, was an Essex-class carrier, which is probably the source of the confusion about CV-48's ship type.

    And yes, it did indeed require towage back to port.

    So claims Government Computer News. According to Atlantic Fleet, the captain and the contractor who was the source of the GCN story, it did not. The contractor said the reporter altered his statements.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Yorktown_(CG-48)#Smart_ship_testbed

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  151. Re:A better theory by Shinobi · · Score: 1

    "I don't think that's right.......what was it evading? It didn't collide until after it turned."

    It was trying to evade the destroyer trying to cross the TSS, right across their bow. The collision happened mid-turn, then the momentum of the turn, assisted by the momentum imparted from the destroyer, the turn continued, until the ship came to a complete stop, before finally reversing.

    "How do you know that? The destroyer isn't displayed in the movie."

    Basically, watching the AIS, reading statements from other sailors in the area, analyzing where the damage is on the JSM, factoring in other US Navy incidents etc(The Fitzgerald collision was while crossing a TSS, in full dark, and the USS Porter was hit while performing a maneuver like the one I mentioned, crossing in front of one cargo ship, just to be hit by the second cargo ship that was behind the other one, in the Straits of Hormuz, which is a TSS zone too, also in full dark), as well as paying attention to the scuttlebut among mariners in general.

    So you have a behavioural pattern among destroyer captains of making dashes across TSS zones, along with comparatively little bridge experience compared to merchant mariners with similar length of service in terms of years. IIRC, on the JSM, the CO did most of his ship duty in engineering, prior to becoming XO and then CO.

  152. Re:never attribute to malice that which is incompe by jeff4747 · · Score: 0

    there is a *really good reason* why the NSA refuses to permit windows systems on its premises.

    Guess who has a very, very large number of windows installs?

    why cannot the U.S. Military get it through its thick fucking head that running an OS

    Guess what agency is part of the US Military?

    and any Military that runs the Windows OS is basically, sad to say it, ASKING - no is DESPERATE - to be screwed over by anyone and everyone.

    Guess how many internal networks a warship has? Hint: It isn't one. Further, guess whether or not the important networks are connected to the Internet.

  153. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To be fair it's about as credible as:

    Seriously! Moar (sic) social spending is the solution to, well... pretty much everything, or so I've been told.

    Pretending to be upset over pithy one-liners?

    Might as well complain about the people clamoring:

    "All the Waist in Social Spending must be elimernated, that's the solution to, well, poor people not dying in the gutter, or so I've been told."

  154. Re:A better theory by codesmith.ca · · Score: 1

    TSS crossing COLREG reference.

    Looks like the destroyer had the right of way, but expected the merchant vessel to modify speed or course. The merchant seems to have failed to do so, and hit the destroyer. Still, the Naval captain will lose his job, as he is expected to deal with situations like this and perform all possible actions to prevent damage, injury or loss of life.

  155. Fleet admiral let go by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That fleet's commanding Admiral was relieved of duty yesterday. Typically, this indicates human error, but it does not totally rule out other issues on top of the human error.

  156. Look out the window by Alioth · · Score: 1

    Sigh. There is nearly 0% chance this had anything to do with a "cyber attack" and nearly 100% chance that someone wasn't looking out the fucking window for potential conflicting traffic.

  157. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    Facepalms self. FFS don't assume that you are smarter than everyone else on the internet, especially when you haven't actually studied GPS or how large ships navigate.

    GPS works by locating the signal from 4 or more GPS satellites and then comparing the signals to determine a location. GPS signals are very weak and both the Russians and Chinese have specific GPS jamming weapon systems (and in turn the US has guided missiles that home in on GPS jamming signals). Furthermore, what I suggest here is the spoofing of the GPS signals to the commercial vessel only. This can be easily accomplished using a device near the GPS antenna or a drone landed near the antenna or a plane at relatively low altitude with a directional antenna that within a small radius spoofs the GPS constellation overhead. That GPS spoofing vehicle or device can "steer" the commercial vessel remotely, whose auto navigation GPS based system updates it's course every few minutes, (since drifting even a little off course can cost thousands of dollars of extra fuel). Once the ships are within 2000 meters or so, the collision is inevitable and the GPS spoofing vehicle can bug out, leaving no trace.

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  158. Re:A better theory by Shinobi · · Score: 1

    The scenario you linked is inappropriate here.

    The JSM incident was a multi-ship scenario, with poor visibility(dark, multiple ships cluttering the view, shore lights etc)

    But, the JSM was the give-way vessel, since it was outside the TSS, and shall thus take any practical actions to keep well clear of any risk of collision. And, as I noted in another post, this fits well into a behavioural pattern with US destroyers: Crossing TSS zones, in the dark, ahead of other ships. USS Porter, USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain all collided in TSS zones, in the dark, while trying to cross.

  159. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    This exactly, the only problem is that US naval ships have not been on high alert for commercial vessels being steered directly on them, thus it may be something as simple as the radar officer sees the commercial vessel, sees it is on a collision course, so the naval vessel plots a new course and then they go back to playing solitaire not realizing that the commercial vessel is course correcting to collide with the naval vessels new course. 30 minutes later that collision is unavoidable since these ships literally cannot get out of each others way once they are within a certain distance and course.

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  160. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    GPS radio waves are a very weak signal at sea level, and if you plant a GPS spoofer directly adjacent to the commercial ship's GPS antenna, that signal can be 10x more powerful to the commercial ship than the real GPS signal and not even be detectable 100 yards away let alone to other ships miles away. You might want to educate yourself on how radiant intensity works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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  161. Re:A better theory by codesmith.ca · · Score: 1

    I agree with your assessment of the situation with regards to traffic volume, time of day and location.

    However, the JSM was not required to be the give-way vessel, as per rule 10(a). Rule 10(c) states 'A vessel shall, so far as practicable, avoid crossing traffic lanes' but does not change the status of give-way or stand-on with a crossing vessel ahead and to starboard.

    Unfortunately, I believe that this was another case of a merchant vessel not maintaining proper watch and failing to maneuver correctly, and a naval vessel failing to properly monitor to actions of surrounding vessels.

  162. Re:A better theory by Shinobi · · Score: 1

    But you have 10(d)(I) and 10(h) that are also in effect

  163. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    There are many on slashdot who think themselves experts because they once read something about X. It is a common affliction in our modern world with the advent of the internet and Wikipedia, you actually can educate yourself on a wide variety of topics, but proper application of that knowledge requires intelligence and sadly many are still lacking in that regard. The icing on the cake is that most of them are also clueless about their own limitations and instead are confident of their intellectual and moral superiority to everyone else they come across, and are only too eager to demonstrate the fact.

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  164. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 0

    I don't usually reply to ACs, but I have a minute, so let me clarify.

    THE COMMERCIAL VESSEL'S GPS WAS SPOOFED. Not the military vessel. The spoofing device was likely placed on or directly next to the commercial vessels GPS antenna.

    The military vessel likely saw the commercial vessel, noted the collision course, and changed course to avoid the collision. Probably more than once. What the naval officers on duty at the time didn't account for was that the commercial vessel, unlike every commercial vessel they had ever seen before was not going from A to B, it was being steered like a 30,000 ton torpedo directly at them. By the time they realized this, the collision was likely unavoidable. The Naval ship had no recourse and nothing to do. It is unlikely that they could have even sunk the commercial ship before the collision.

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  165. Attack of the Cyber BS .. by khz6955 · · Score: 1

    I call BS on this, GPS spoofing doesn't prevent the radar from working or from someone looking out the window.

  166. found ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    did they find the new bermuda triangle perhaps ?

  167. Millennials by Drunkulus · · Score: 1

    Funny. Dockerhub was down during each of these collisions. Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

  168. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's nothing unreasonable about that line. Soldiers in World War II would have been equipped with a map as well as a compass. You can semi-accurately determine your location with just those two items. You aren't going to get pinpoint resolution on your location but you rarely need that level of resolution for land-based navigation. Anytime soldiers would be uncertain of where they were, they would consult the compass, map, and local landmarks. The reading from the compass is required for making sure the landmarks they see correctly align with the landmarks on their map. They can determine where they are from that and just radio graves registration with the coordinates from their map right then and there or mark the location on their map until they can transmit the coordinates to graves. Graves didn't need coordinates down to minutes and seconds. They just need to get in the vicinity and they'll be able to find the bodies and graves. Buried bodies aren't usually left unmarked unless you don't want them to be found.

  169. Re: A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Then your examiners give you more leniency than mine gave me :)

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  170. Occams razor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seems very obvious what is happening:
    - Equipment made by the lowest bidder, from a business arm of the MIC.
    - Navy Officers are ultimately in charge of navigation decisions.
    - A boat named McCain, after a senator named McCain that We The People wanted gone from public view over 10 years ago.
    - All u.s. government agencies, cabinets, and illegitimate acromyn-based agencies lie to We The People anytime someone is speaking.
    - u.s. media is not reporting important facts and investigating the criminals and traitors in the oligarchy.

    Incompetent equipment, incompetent navy leadership, boat karma from a bad choice in names, oppressive and lying government trying to manipulate We The People, and retarded and lying media cowtowing to the oilgarchy.

    This was not a cyber attack. It was good ole Normal by the shitty people and places that crap on We The People every day.

    "Fuck you, and fuck her too." - C Lo Green

  171. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Your complicated plan could work, but not if the crew pays attention.
    You would need expensive specialized equipment to 'remote control' a ship and not affect the nearby ones.

    And, I would not wonder if a high quality ship GPS is watching far more than 4 satellites, and probably even shows an error if some of them seem unusually strong.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  172. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Erm, why do you shit no brainers? I had physics in school, you know ....

    I guess the destroyer and the cargo ship must have a strong force field that they collided with each other while hundreds of meters apart ...

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  173. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    There was no GPS spoofing involved at all, why don't you read the news instead of spreading your conspiracy theory?

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  174. Relying solely on electronics = insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Regardless of whether these were cyber-attacks (and yes, of course by Putin himself), one thing stands out: the navy is INCAPABLE TO OPERATE WITHOUT THE ELECTRONICS, and the CREWS ARE NOT WATCHING OUT FOR HAZARD. This makes the hugely expensive ships hugely vulnerable to magnetic pulse attacks. This is what happens when you do not use your MIND when designing things

  175. Re:A better theory by hawguy · · Score: 1

    Erm, why do you shit no brainers? I had physics in school, you know ....

    I guess the destroyer and the cargo ship must have a strong force field that they collided with each other while hundreds of meters apart ...

    By the time two large ships are on a collision course 100 yards apart, it's too late to stop a collision.

    But you don't seem to understand how weak GPS signals are -- they are literally below the noise floor, and a GPS receiver can only find the signal because it knows where to look ahead of time. The signal from GPS jammer located near a GPS receiver would be completely undetectable 10 meters away.

  176. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    The signal from GPS jammer located near a GPS receiver would be completely undetectable 10 meters away.

    Of course it would be completely undetecable, it is a no brainer.

    So why are you riding this dead horse?

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  177. Re:A better theory by hawguy · · Score: 1

    The signal from GPS jammer located near a GPS receiver would be completely undetectable 10 meters away.

    Of course it would be completely undetecable, it is a no brainer.

    So why are you riding this dead horse?

    Because you made the claim that it's impossible to jam GPS (or give an erroneous GPS reading) to one ship without also affecting all of the surrounding ships, and nothing you've replied since then shows that you understand that it's possible.

  178. Cylons by wallsg · · Score: 1

    This is what happens when you start networking computers on a Battlestar. Damn Cylons will get you every time.

  179. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    If you put a device like you proclaim, on a ship, then it is not jamming, but tampering.

    Jamming is done from a distance, and I pointed out that this would affect not a single ship but all in its vicinity.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  180. Cyberattacks? Bollocks! by Bitbeisser · · Score: 1

    A few years back I used to be (despite an Army paratrooper) in charge of a platoon to serve as boarding parties on pirate patrol in the Indian Ocean (Operation Atalanta) on board of one of our frigates. We moved in and out of the harbor of Djibouti, passing through the Gulf of Aden, a very busy shipping lane comparable to the situation down in Malaysia/Singapore. The ship did not rely just on radar/GPS to navigate those waters, but there were at all times at least 4 lookouts, in all directions, not only the one it was moving in, at night with NVG, that were scanning the surroundings at all time. While it was easy on patrol to miss those smaller dhows and particular the skiffs, specially in choppy sea way out on the ocean, there was no way that anyone would miss to spot a huge oil tanker or container ship on a collision course. There has to be a notorious lack of responsibility and oversight, among sailors and officers, both on board and in higher command, for this to happen repeatedly. Ignorance and arrogance kills...

  181. set aside your hate for America/Americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are internationally-agreed upon "rules of the road" for maritimne navigation.

    The US Navy adheres to those rules as do all the other responsible nations (though admittedly anybody might throw them out in wartime)

    The USNavy ships involved in these collisions were required to obey the rules just as the other ships were and the captains will be held to account if they broke the rules.

    Congress does not like it when those big expensive warships they buy get broken - If the DoD does not get to the bottom of this soon there will be congressional hearings. Generals and Admirals do not like being hauled in front of congress.

    It is 100% certain the captains involved will lose their commands since they are 100% resoponsible for EVERYTHING that happens on their ships. If there has been an equipment failure, the captains are responsible for the poor condition of their vessel and/or the poor training and supervision of the crew members responsible for using and maintaining it. If this was human error by the bridge crew and/or lookouts, navigators, helmsmen, etc then the captains are responsible for poor oversight/training of the people who screwed up. US Navy Captains are COMPLETELY responsible for their vessels and crews and this is made abundantly clear to them early in their careers, LONG before they get near the Captain's chair.

    I learned this as a midshipman, YEARS before getting my commission as an Ensign (lowest-rank office in US Navy).

  182. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    get a life - overwork from bad scheduling isn't related to maternity leave

  183. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    A. I don't allow some random news outlet (or a well known one) to tell me how to think.

    B. Until they have a definitive, well explained reason for these crashes, my theory (a GPS spoofer attached to a negatively buoyant drone that crashes itself in the ocean a few moments before impact) just as accurately explains the evidence as any other theory.

    C. FROM THE LINKED ARTICLE "Could a ... vessel be hacked? In essence, what if GPS spoofing ... caused personnel to be unaware of any imminent danger or unable to respond?" https://thenextweb.com/insider...

    Maybe you should read first and criticize once you have a clue?

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  184. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    You may have had high school physics but I would have failed you if you had been in any of the courses I taught in college (and I have some criticism for the HS physics teacher who passed you without the ability to properly define the problem at hand).

    There are a number of holes in your statement. Several other members have pointed out the flaws in your critique, but lets review:

    Point 1: Lets assume that the drone's field of GPS spoofing extends 100M, If a drone spoofer were parked on top of the GPS antenna (0.2M away) this is generous, since the spoofing signal can be extremely weak at that distance and still overpower the GPS satellite signals by 10x. The vessel type in question has the bridge and comms array near the stern and the vessel that collided with the John S. McCain IS 183m LONG! https://www.vesseltracker.com/... So the 100m spoofing range would have been meaningless in averting the collision, not even extending out to the bow of the ship.

    Point 2: Assuming the GPS spoofing device had an effective range of 1000m (unlikely but not impossible) the vessels involved both take multiple kilometers to stop or turn. Once their course and speed are set, detecting a spoofed GPS signal at 1000m (actually about 800m subtracting the commercial vessels length) is not enough time for either crew to react and avert the collision. The vessel that collided with the John S McCain unladen weighs roughly 30,000 tons (60,000,000 pounds) and is 183m (600 feet) long and I believe it was carrying 12,000 tons of fuel oil at the time. The John S McCain is 505 feet long... These vessels cannot stop or turn rapidly.

    Point 3: I am asserting spoofing not jamming, but either effect would need the same signal strength in the GPS signals frequency (something like 10x the actual satellite signal strength). Placing the spoofing/jamming device adjacent to the GPS antenna (less than 0.2m) defines how strong the spoofing device signal needs to be at the source, and at that range, either spoofing or jamming would be invisible at 100m (or less) if done properly which as we just reviewed above would not affect any other ship in the vicinity.

    Just admit that your criticism was incorrect and you have gaps in your knowledge of how GPS actually works and didn't know what these ships look like or their size or their turning radius and stopping distance when under way. It is already clear to everyone reading this thread. Continuing to argue only proves that you are also unable to learn from your mistakes which only perpetuates your own ignorance.

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  185. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    Exactly right on both counts Hawguy.

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  186. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    Your complicated plan could work, but not if the crew pays attention.
    You would need expensive specialized equipment to 'remote control' a ship and not affect the nearby ones.

    And, I would not wonder if a high quality ship GPS is watching far more than 4 satellites, and probably even shows an error if some of them seem unusually strong.

    Which is why these attacks have been carried out in low visibility or early morning hours when everyone is more reliant on GPS and is less alert.

    Also, you have got to educate yourself on how GPS signals work and the scales of magnitude involved here. GPS signals are extremely weak signals to begin with. THERE IS NO CHANCE OF AFFECTING NEARBY SHIPS IF YOU ARE SPOOFING A COMMERCIAL VESSEL 0.2m FROM IT'S GPS ANTENNA. Those spoofing GPS signals will be undetectable at 100m and these ships are 180m long and they usually stay multiple kilometers apart, even when they are "close" in shipping lanes. The spoofing device could be commanded remotely via satellite internet connection or shorter range radio data connection (microwave or some such) which is on a unique and completely different band than GPS and thus would have no effect on other ships in the vicinity (i.e. 10km).

    Commercial ships all use commercial GPS hardware that looks at the strongest 4 satellites in the constellation. There are not, as far as I am aware, any commercial GPS receivers that look at more than 4, largely due to no added value and the algorithm that calculates position uses exactly 4, if you added more you would have to rewrite the algorithm to use the additional satellites for additional positional validation calculations which would add unnecessary overhead to the processor. There is also nothing preventing the GPS spoofing device from spoofing more than 4 satellites if for example 6 satellites were used to try to combat 4 satellite spoofing.

    The spoofing equipment development cost might be expensive for you, but for a rogue nation like North Korea or Iran, that is pennies on the dollar to disable an otherwise untouchable ship that could single handedly sink their entire surface navies. Watch for them to try to cause collisions with an aircraft carrier next.

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  187. Re:A better theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    didn't they check their wing mirrors?

  188. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Of you still have mot realized till now that the destroyer crossed a shipping lane and that the cargo ship was traveling in a straight line in that lane, then you are beyond help.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  189. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Actually I doubt you ever taught Physics. Anyway, you can leave those ad hominems out.
    And you can leave out your layman examples of drones spoofing GPS. There was no drone spoofing GPS, so: why do you try to educate the world?

    All your points are complete bollocks.

    The collision was in a shipping lane. Hundrets of ships probably where around collision. No pilot is looking on a GPS screen and driving in circles when dozens of ships in front of him follow a straight line, and dozens behind him do the same and hi has dozens of ships incomming on the counter lane in front of him.

    Btw: I never said your drone example is impossible, so why are you riding this dead horse?

    If you still have mot realized till now that the destroyer crossed a shipping lane and that the cargo ship was traveling in a straight line in that lane, then you are beyond help.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  190. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    I don't have to educate me about anything regarding this theead: because I know everythi relevant already.

    If you still have mot realized till now that the destroyer crossed a shipping lane and that the cargo ship was traveling in a straight line in that lane, then you are beyond help.

    Your idea how many sattelites a GPS receiver uses is completely bollocks. Basically all GPS receivers use as many sattelites as they can see. And that is usually about 6 - 8.

    So to spoof a ships position you need to spoof all signals from them, know which satellites are visible (e.g. having your own GPS) and a super accurate clock. If your clock is not accurate enough the ships spoofed GPS will have the 'impression' that the ship is jumpint around.

    Anyway, you are such a moron it is unbeliefeable. Sea faring vessels don't use GPS on autopilote. Human pilots don't use GPS to navigate in shipping lanes.

    The ships in such traffic areas are traveling with a few miles distance to each other, probbably down to a hundret yards. How stupid do you think commercial pilots are?

    Look 1 minute not out of the window and you probbaly have collided with half a dozen ships already.

    Loook on a damn map and check where that accident happend. And reread the /. article. Dozens of people already have explained what happend and you moron ride on the dead horse of a GPS spoofing attack.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  191. Re:A better theory by Dr_Terminus · · Score: 1

    Seems plausible that the McCain was crossing the TSS perpendicularly (as permitted by Rule 10), from NW to SE, and during the transit, didn't see the Hyundai Global racing up from behind on the inside, and so had to cut power to avoid a collision with her, and instead got smacked by Alnic MC. If that is the case, Hyundai Global bears some blame for racing way too fast in the shipping lane, and entering the separation zone where they shouldn't be.

  192. Re:A better theory by Dr_Terminus · · Score: 1

    Where do you get from that that the tanker made a turn into the warship? The warship was crossing NW to SE perpendicular to the separation zone as required, and the tanker hit the warship in the port quarter. The sharp change in course is during and after the collision when the tanker was dragged sideways by the warship's momentum.

  193. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    Not even going to respond to this garbled mess.

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  194. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    Done with you.

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  195. Re:A better theory by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

    "Shipping lanes" can be hundreds of miles wide. Just crossing one should be trivial for a naval vessel, and course correcting the commercial vessel into the naval vessel would not necessarily take the commercial vessel out of the shipping lane... No relevance to our discussion.

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  196. Re:A better theory by Shinobi · · Score: 1

    That sounds a bit more far fetched. More probable, in my analysis, is that JSM saw Team Oslo and Guang Zhou, darted in between the former and ahead of the latter. However, the Alnic MC was obscured from the JSM both visually and on RADAR by Team Oslo, until it was too late. At that point, they may also temporarily have lost steering due to the hydrodynamic effects of the wake and possibly bow waves of the ships around the point.

  197. Re:A better theory by fnj · · Score: 1

    Forest, meet trees. That is all very interesting, but really not very relevant. The simple truth is that "civilian" GPS USED TO HAVE only 1/10 to 1/100 the accuracy of "military" GPS, but that hasn't been the case for quite a while now. Anyone who has used a cheap consumer GPS knows it will reliably pinpoint you within a few meters.

  198. Re:A better theory by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    If the warship was traveling NW to SE, wouldn't the ship (traveling west) have hit the starboard side?

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  199. Re:A better theory by Dr_Terminus · · Score: 1

    No, if the warship was traveling heading 135 as required by Rule 10, and the tanker is east of the warship, traveling heading roughly 225, then it would be approaching from the port side of the warship.

  200. Re:A better theory by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    I think the tanker was heading roughly 135, not 225.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  201. Re:A better theory by Dr_Terminus · · Score: 1

    Read up on compass directions, then we can discuss...

  202. Re:A better theory by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    rule 18: "Look to the right, give way to the right, turn to the right and stay to the right." At least one of those ships failed.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  203. Re:A better theory by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Of course it is relevant, as you obviously are to lazy to check the news.
    Shipping lanes are not hundrets of miles wide, that would be completely pointless.

    Obviously it was not trivial for the destroyer, otherwise he had noticed that the ship it collided with was behind the ship he avoided to collide with ... but as you don't read news you don't know that the destroyer tried to fiddle itself between three ships. Two it avoided and the third they oversaw.

    The correct way, braindead easy, would have been to adjust course in paralell to the commercial traffic, that usually means a turn to 'the right'. Ride with the flow till there is a sufficient gap between the incomming traffic, and then cross to the other side.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  204. Or maybe... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe the US Navy isn't training people well, isn't operating safely (Navy ships do NOT have the standard beacons turned on that all other shipping always uses which identifies the ship ID and location), and is clearly broken as an organization. With 16 years of war (the longest ever), and with all sorts of personnel rotation standards violated everyday, it's not surprising that things break down. The system was never designed for this kind of situation.

  205. Re:A better theory by MarcusOutrageous · · Score: 1

    Holmwood -- this is very interesting. Can you provide citations or a data source that provides this info as well as comparison data for males? Best would be if we could look at some historical data too. I'm willing to dig myself as I have a vested interest in such data. Obtaining a startpoint from you, if I can, will provide additional efficiency. Thank you.

  206. Datapoints by MarcusOutrageous · · Score: 1

    Whoah -- Google "Naval Pregnancy Rates" turns up a wealth of info. Am interested in any articles you'd recommend. (apologies for dupe post. time matters.)