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Albee Zhang

A US guided-missile destroyer that was adrift in the South China Sea without power last month is a sign that America is taxing its reserve capacity as its operation against Iran drags on, according to an analyst.
“This is an extremely unusual occurrence and a variety of equipment and process failures would have to have taken place,” said Brad Martin, a former US Navy captain who is now a senior policy researcher at Washington-based think tank the Rand Corporation.
“Failures such as this are a predictable outcome of issues such as deferred maintenance and training gaps,” he said, adding that more details were needed to get a full picture of the incident.
The USS Benfold lost power due to an engineering failure involving its generators on July 24, the US Navy said in a statement cited by USNI News on Friday.
It left the nearly 10,000-tonne Arleigh Burke-class vessel stalled for four days without power in the South China Sea.

US Seventh Fleet spokesman Commander Matthew Comer said in the statement that the destroyer lost power while conducting routine operations in the Indo-Pacific with the USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group.
Sailors aboard the ship were left without drinking water, meals, functioning toilets and air conditioning, the report cited Comer as saying.
The US Seventh Fleet did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Another destroyer from the carrier strike group – the USS Robert Smalls – provided meals for the crew before the Benfold was towed to Subic Bay in the Philippines on July 28.
Power was restored on July 30, Comer was quoted as saying.
The Benfold then set sail for Japan while the rest of the strike group headed to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln in the war with Iran.
Martin said the Iran conflict was taking a toll on the US military.
“There is no doubt that prolonged operations in one theatre could have an impact on ability to respond in others,” he said.
“I don’t think potential adversaries should take this as a sign of ‘can’t respond’, but clearly the US is drawing on and taxing reserve capacity.”
The Benfold incident has also drawn attention in China, with military analyst Shi Hong writing on social media on Monday that “the US Navy is facing unprecedented force overextension across the board”.
“As tensions continue to escalate in the Middle East and strategic competition in the Asia-Pacific intensifies, the navy has no choice but to constantly shuffle its limited number of ships around the globe in a relentless cycle of deployments,” wrote Shi, the executive editor of Chinese military magazine Shipborne Weapons.
It was the second time a US warship has lost power in the Pacific region this year. In May, another Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer – the USS Higgins – lost power for several hours, CNN reported, citing a US defence official.
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier George Washington was sent to replace the Abraham Lincoln after several sailors attempted to jump overboard due to burnout from their extended deployment since late November, Navy Times reported last week.
That means there are no US aircraft carriers currently operating in the Asia-Pacific region.
The George Washington had been operating in the South China Sea since July 22 as tensions soared between China and the Philippines over the disputed Scarborough and Second Thomas shoals.
America normally maintains both a carrier strike group and an amphibious ready group, based in Japan, for power projection in the region. The USS Tripoli amphibious group was pulled out of Asia from March to July to support the Iran war but has since returned to Japan.


In an opinion piece on Monday, Chinese state-run nationalist tabloid Global Times said the “sudden absence of a carrier in the western Pacific is not an accident – it is a bill coming due”.
“This does not mean the US military has suddenly become a paper tiger. Washington has simply left the era of easy dominance,” it said.
Hu Bo, director of the Beijing-based South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, said the George Washington had not been operating close to the contested territory and it was unlikely to intervene in the dispute.
He said the warship had been deployed to the South China Sea for deterrence.
“But China will definitely act based on the right and wrong of the matter itself. It’s not going to change course or do something extra just because the US pulls out,” Hu said.
“If it is provoked by countries like the Philippines or Japan, China will naturally respond accordingly. But that reaction won’t be intensified because of the departure of US warships.”


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After USS Benfold lost power for four days last month, analysts say prolonged operations in the Middle East could be taking a toll


After USS Benfold lost power for four days last month, analysts say prolonged operations in the Middle East could be taking a toll.


Is South China Sea warship breakdown a sign US is ‘taxing reserve capacity’?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}After USS Benfold lost power for four days last month, analysts say prolonged operations in the Middle East could be taking a toll

After USS Benfold lost power for four days last month, analysts say prolonged operations in the Middle East could be taking a toll