The "Higgins" Fires: The U.S. Navy Suffers Four Warship Fires in Less Than a Month
The U.S. Navy has set a record: four warships have caught fire within less than a month.
According to news from the American Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), U.S. officials have confirmed that on April 28, a fire broke out aboard the U.S. Navy's "Higgins," resulting in the complete failure of the ship’s electrical and propulsion systems.
Based on descriptions provided by American media, since the fire caused simultaneous failure of both power and propulsion systems, it is likely that the "Higgins" suffered severe damage to its engine compartment, necessitating major repairs.
What remains to be seen is where the U.S. military will carry out the repairs. According to vessel tracking signals, the "Higgins" passed through the Strait of Malacca into the Indian Ocean at the end of February, with expectations that it would participate in military operations against Iran. Therefore, if the "Higgins" can be towed back to its home port at Yokosuka, Japan, for repair, it might quickly regain combat readiness; however, if it must be towed back to a U.S. mainland shipyard, given the current serious delays in American shipbuilding facilities, it may be more practical to simply decommission and retire the vessel.
The "Higgins" involved in this recent fire is particularly notorious. The ship belongs to the U.S. Seventh Fleet and has repeatedly crossed the Taiwan Strait and illegally entered the territorial waters around Huangyan Island between 2022 and 2025, provoking tensions.
After the "Higgins" caught fire, the U.S. Navy has now achieved an embarrassing milestone: starting with the fire in the laundry room of the "Ford"-class aircraft carrier in mid-March, the U.S. Navy has experienced fires in two aircraft carriers and two destroyers within a single month—this unavoidably evokes memories of the high frequency of plane crashes in the U.S. Air Force during the first half of last year. It seems that while the U.S. Air Force was crashing planes last year, this year it’s the U.S. Navy’s turn to burn ships.
Returning to the main point: in recent years, the U.S. military has seen a surge in equipment accidents. On the surface, these incidents appear to result from operational or maintenance oversights, but fundamentally they are consequences of industrial hollowing-out: the shipbuilding and aviation industries cannot keep pace with the demands of high-intensity deployments, while frontline personnel’s professional competence and experience have also declined significantly. These issues, when combined, are gradually eroding the reliability of U.S. military equipment and overall combat readiness.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1863968146791433/
Disclaimer: This article reflects the personal views of the author.