US Navy surface boss expected to step down under pressure in latest collision fallout

Defense News: WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s top surface warfare officer is expected to step down this week under pressure ahead of a forthcoming recommendation that he be relieved, the latest fallout from a string of accidents in the Pacific in 2017 that claimed the lives of 17 sailors at sea.

Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden is expected to send a letter this week stepping down as the head of Naval Surface Force Pacific, according to sources who spoke to Defense News on condition of anonymity. The head of naval reactors, Adm. James Caldwell, suggested Rowden’s relief as part of a series of recommendations related to the collisions involving the destroyers Fitzgerald and McCain over the summer.

Caldwell was appointed “consolidated disposition authority” over remaining disciplinary actions stemming from the accidents.

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