The destroyer was involved in a collision with the tanker ship Alnic MC on 21 August 2017 off the coast of Singapore, which resulted in the deaths of 10 of her crew, and left another five injured. The damage put the ship out of operational status for over two years, with completion in October 2019.
John S. McCain's keel was laid down on 3 September 1991, at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. She was launched on 26 September 1992, sponsored by Cindy McCain, the wife of Senator John McCain III, and was commissioned on 2 July 1994, at the Bath Iron Works with Commander John K. Ross as the first commanding officer. The former President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, was the ceremony's principal speaker. Her maiden deployment was from 10 November 1995 to 10 May 1996 to the 5th and 7th fleets with visits to Kochi, India, Fremantle and Newcastle Australia and Suva Fiji.
After the ship returned to her home port in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, she shifted to the forward-deploy port in Yokosuka, Japan, in June 1997. In October 1997, she visited the port of Qingdao China, the first visit to Communist China other than Hong Kong, in 15 years.
On 11 June 2009, a Chinese submarine reportedly collided with the towed sonar array of John S. McCain near Subic Bay, Philippines. The incident caused damage to the array, but was described as an "inadvertent encounter".[10]
On 2 October 2016, USS John S. McCain and USS Frank Cable made the first port visit by U.S. Navy ships to Cam Ranh Bay since end of the Vietnam War in 1975.[18] In August 2017, John S. McCain sailed within 6 nautical miles (7 mi; 11 km) of Mischief Reef in the South China Sea, exercising a claim to freedom of navigation. China, claiming sovereignty over the reef, expressed its "strong dissatisfaction" in response to the action.[19] A US Navy representative reported that a Chinese frigate had sent at least 10 radio messages warning that the John S. McCain was in Chinese waters, to which the US ship replied that it was "conducting routine operations in international waters."[19]
At 5:24 am on 21 August 2017, John S. McCain was involved in a collision with the Liberian-flaggedAlnic MC off the coast of Singapore and Malaysia, east of the Strait of Malacca.[7][20][21] According to a United States Navy press release, the breach "resulted in flooding to nearby compartments, including crew berthing, machinery, and communications rooms."[22] Ten US Navy sailors died as a result of the crash, which prompted the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore to start a multi-agency SAR effort as the agency responsible for coordinating air-sea rescue operations within Singapore's Maritime Search and Rescue Region (MSRR).[23][24][21][25][26] The Singapore Transport Safety Bureau (TSIB) also launched a marine safety investigation following the collision in accordance with the International Maritime Organisation's Casualty Investigation Code in Singapore's capacity as a coastal state, and published its final report on 8 March 2018.[27] The U.S. Navy announced on 24 August 2017 that it had suspended search-and-rescue efforts for survivors in the open sea to focus on the recovery of the remains of the missing sailors still inside the flooded compartments of the ship.[28] By 27 August U.S. Navy and Marine Corps divers had recovered the remains of all 10 sailors.[29] On 12 September 2017, the United States' chargé d'affaires Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath expressed thanks for Singapore's support during the SAR operations.[30]
Throughout 2018, she was under repair in drydock and by November 2018, the ship left drydock and was transferred to a pier to continue her repairs. The repairs were completed in October 2019.[31][32]
Investigation into the collision showed that an overly complex touchscreen system used for throttle control and training deficiencies had contributed to a loss of control of the ship just before it crossed paths with a merchant ship in the Singapore Strait, prompting a decision by the Navy to revert ships of this class to mechanical throttle controls fleetwide.[33][34]
2020s
While conducting a Freedom of Navigation exercise in Peter the Great Bay, in the Sea of Japan on 24 November 2020, Russian Naval destroyer Admiral Vinogradov demanded that John S. McCain leave the bay, which Russia claims as their territorial waters, or they would be "rammed". While Russian news agency TASS claims that the Russian Navy chased the US destroyer out of the bay, a spokesperson for the U.S. 7th Fleet claims that John S. McCain left bay of their own accord, after completing the exercise. The US further claims that they were in international waters at all times, which was the purpose of the exercise.[35][36]
On 6 August 2023, John S. McCain and three other destroyers responded to a joint Chinese-Russian patrol in international waters near Alaska. The Chinese-Russian flotilla left without incident.[38]
On 4 September 2024, the US Navy relieved the captain of the USS McCain of duty because of a loss of confidence in his ability to lead after a steering issue led to a near miss in the Middle East.[39] Earlier a picture of the captain of the USS McCain firing a rifle, whose scope was mounted backwards, went viral.[40]
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