Key point: Several horrible crashes have forced changes in how ships are driven.

WASHINGTON – A fatal at-sea collision that claimed the lives of some and injured many urged the Navy to drop use of the touchscreen interface and go back to the traditional ship control. International Business Times reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

12 Aug. 2019 -- The result of the investigation conducted and released recently by the National Transportation Safety Board revealed that the lack of proper training on the touchscreen interface caused the crash that killed 10 persons and 58 others in a ship.

The collision between an oil tanker and destroyer USS John McCain took place on August 2017. The investigation report states that the sailors in charge of the helm lost control that leads them to direct the ship towards the oil tanker instead of going the opposite way.

The report said that USS John McCain sailors were using the integrated bridge and navigation system, IBNS, a multi-functional pair of touchscreens designed by Northrop-Grumman. The said interface has just been installed on the destroyer almost a year before the accident.

This article by John Keller originally appeared on Military & Aerospace Electronics in 2019.

Image: Wikimedia.