Salvaging operations began in February for the USS Guardian, a U.S. mine countermeasure vessel that crashed in January into the Tubbataha Reef, a United Nations' World Heritage site in the Philippines, International Business Times reported. The U.S. Navy plans to dismantle the ship into three sections and decommission it, DefenseNews reported. SMIT Singapore Pte Ltd. (Singapore) won a U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency contract for $24.9 million to provide emergency response and recovery operations support. This includes personnel, vessels and equipment for assessment, planning, stabilization, oil removal and vessel recovery. Seventy-two percent of the work will be done in the vicinity of the Tubbataha Reef and 15 percent will be done at Palawan, Philippines.
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