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 coast guard and navy destroyer collided during a dramatic confrontation with Philippine government forces in the South China Sea. Footage released by Manila captured the accident, which severely damaged the coast guard cutter.