The U.S. Navy will send the USS John S. McCain from Singapore to Yokosuka, Japan, in late September to assess damage from an Aug. 21 collision with an oil tanker in the Pacific Ocean.
The Navy will issue a task order on an existing contract to salvage, patch and transport the destroyer via heavy lift, according to a release Wednesday from Naval Sea Systems Command.
The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer will be transported from Changi naval base in Singapore to the U.S. Navy’s Ship Repair Facility-Japan Regional Maintenance Center in Yokosuka, where the damage will be assessed before the Navy determines plans for repair, including cost, schedule and location, the release said.
The USS McCain was built at Bath Iron Works and launched in 1992. A BIW spokesman said following the collision that several shipyard employees were stationed in Yokosuka, but that it was unclear whether they would be involved in the repairs.
On Aug. 21, the McCain and the oil tanker Alnic MC collided east of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.
The destroyer sustained significant damage to its port side aft, causing flooding to nearby compartments including berthing, machinery and communications rooms.
Ten sailors died in the collision, which followed by two months the collision of another Bath-built destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, with a Philippine container ship.
On Aug. 23, the Navy announced that BIW competitor Huntington Ingalls Industries, based in Pascagoula, Mississippi, would repair the Fitzgerald.