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.

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.