USS Benfold Suffers Total Power Failure in South China Sea

The USS Benfold, a 30-year-old Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, suffered a total power failure on July 24 while operating in the South China Sea. An engineering casualty involving the ship's generators left approximately 300 sailors without potable water, air conditioning, working toilets, or galley services for four days. During the outage, regional temperatures reached between 89 and 98 degrees Fahrenheit. The USS Robert Smalls and other vessels from the George Washington Carrier Strike Group provided meals to the crew until contracted tugboats towed the disabled ship to Subic Bay in the Philippines on July 28.

Power was restored on July 30, and repairs conducted by the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center were completed by August 8. The vessel reportedly arrived at its home port in Yokosuka, Japan, on August 14. This incident marks the second power failure for a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Indo-Pacific this year, following a similar event involving the USS Higgins in May.

The failure occurred as the Benfold was accompanying the USS George Washington to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East. The latter has spent over 200 days without a port call during the Iran War, leading to reports of mental health crises and low morale. While Democratic lawmakers and military families cited the strain of the conflict, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao rejected these accounts, with Cao accusing the media of painting sailors as victims.