Navy destroyer John S. McCain collides with merchant vessel

I'm sure navigating safely is way more complicated than this grunt imagines, but it is just baffling to me how these collisions can happen. I was under the (maybe false) impression that our ships are these high tech wonders that can see everything way out there. How can we see missiles coming but not oil tankers? Or are we really sailing in the dark, relying on a sailor looking out with a pair of binos to see other ships?

Not enough information to determine cause or fault. But, any collision is a failure of proper navigation on both ships. The first piece of advice I had standing my first OOD watch was, "Get us from point A to B without hitting anything." I stood about 1000 watches. Never hit anything by accident, on purpose a few times.
It's not hard to two ships to collide. Indecision, inattention and over-confidence are main weaknesses. Navigating is not hard. During RefTra in Gitmo, we (USCG) practiced sailing in/out of harbor using only electronics, no visuals. We also practiced sailing with no electronics. I managed to get to Bermuda without radar, GPS, LORAN, or other methods other than eyeballs and celestial measurements. The Navy needs to reevaluate how their bridge teams operate.

Thanks for sharing SN Greg Wright. Sad news for the Navy since this is the second collision with a commercial vessels which has been more hazardous for the Navy destroyer than the commercial vessel.