Damaged destroyer to return to U.S. on heavy lift ship in fall

The U.S. Navy's guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald will return home in the fall for repairs on a private heavy lift vessel, following its June collision with a container ship south of Tokyo Bay, a Navy spokesman said Tuesday.It will be "September at the earliest," U.S. Navy 7th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Clayton Doss told Kyodo News, saying transporting the destroyer on the heavy lift ship is "cost-effective and safe."Following the June 17 collision in which seven crew members died, the destroyer, equipped with state-of-the-art Aegis missile defense, sustained significant damage to its starboar…READ FULL ARTICLE