It’s hard to call the collision of two multi-thousand-ton military ships “fortunate,” but that’s exactly what analysts are saying about the incident in the South China Sea this week that left a China Coast Guard ship with a heavily damaged bow after it hit a People’s Liberation Army Navy guided-missile destroyer.

A Chinese Navy ship and a China Coast Guard vessel collided near the disputed Scarborough Shoal while pursuing a Philippine patrol vessel, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said on Monday (August 11).