Peruvian Warship Suffers Engine Room Fire During RIMPAC War Games, Two Sailors Injured

As Washington shifts its strategic focus toward so-called “great power competition” with Russia and China, so has attention toward controlling the huge Pacific Ocean, with drills like Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) and alliances like AUKUS and the Quad forming the backbone of US-directed military coordination efforts.

On Sunday, a fire in the engine room of a Peruvian warship burned for hours amid the multinational Rim of the Pacific naval drills hosted near Hawaii, injuring two Peruvian sailors.

US Navy Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a spokesperson for the US Third Fleet, told Defense News on Sunday that the RIMPAC watch floor received word of the fire at 8 am local time and that “the combined RIMPAC force is providing support to the vessel.” At 1:40 pm that afternoon, he said in a follow-up statement that “the fire in the engine room aboard a Combined Task Force surface vessel is now extinguished.”

Robertson added that two “critically stable patients” were transported to a US Coast Guard cutter with the help of a French helicopter, and from there to the USS Abraham Lincoln, the US aircraft carrier flagship at the drills.

The Peruvian Navy said the injured sailors’ families had been notified and that Peruvian officials would “evaluate and present an initial report on the events that occurred, to determine the corresponding actions,” according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

In addition, the US Navy seems to have dispatched the US Safeguard-class rescue and salvage ship USNS Grasp from Pearl Harbor to help the Guise, but would not confirm the ship was on such a mission in a statement to USNI News.

Photos published by the US Navy of the RIMPAC games showed the Guise had been working with the US Coast Guard cutter USCGC Midgett and French frigate FS Prairial, two slightly larger ships, as well as the much larger Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Gridley, several days prior to the fire.

Peruvian Navy corvette BAP Guise (CC-28), French Navy frigate FS Prairial (F731), Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Gridley (DDG 101) gather in formation in front of legend-class cutter USCGC Midgett (WMSL 757) during a ship maneuver exercise during Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022.

© U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Taylor Bacon

The vessel was identified by the Peruvian Navy as the BAP Guise, an overhauled Po-Hang-class corvette bought from South Korea that Lima took possession of only last December. The small warship is 289 feet long and displaces just 1,200 tons fully loaded. She has a full crew complement of 118.

Guise was the only Peruvian warship at the RIMPAC games, which included 38 ships, four submarines, more than 170 aircraft, and roughly 25,000 personnel from 26 nations.