Navy cuts up $277M minesweeper

Navy cuts up $277M minesweeper | Washington Free Beacon
The $277 million USS Guardian, a Naval warship that clears waterways of mines, crashed into a coral reef near the Philippines earlier this month.
The Navy will disassemble it piece by piece in order to avoid damaging the reef rather than tow the multi-million dollar ship off of the reef and perform necessary repairs.
“Our only supportable option is to dismantle the damaged ship and remove it in sections,” Capt. Darryn James, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, was quoted as saying Tuesday by the Military Times.
One Navy source criticized decision makers for deliberately destroying the expensive warship just weeks before devastating cuts to the defense budget are scheduled to take place.
“Boneheaded decision making on the way into the reef and boneheaded decision making on the way out,” said the source, who requested anonymity so as not to be seen criticizing the Navy. “It’s amazing how we can find ways to spend more money we don’t have on the eve of sequestration.”
It remains unclear how much the cleanup operation will cost U.S. taxpayers.
It is believed the ship crashed into the reef due to the use of flawed maps.
“The U.S. Navy also revealed Jan. 18 that the digital navigational chart in use by the Guardian misplaced the correct location of the reef by about eight nautical miles,” the Military Times reported.