Editing Mercy-class hospital ship (section)

==Criticism==
The ''Mercy''-class ships' size gives them a substantial [[radar signature]] that, combined with lack of maneuverability, makes them vulnerable to attack. In theory, this should never occur, as attacking a hospital ship is a [[war crime]] under the [[Hague Convention of 1907]], but the ships are left vulnerable to terrorist organizations and other entities that do not follow such established warfare conventions, due to the fact that both ships are outfitted only with defensive weapons. If within a battle fleet they could be vulnerable to missile strikes aimed at the fleet as a whole, and their radar signature could be confused with troop ships, landing ships, helicopter carriers or become a target for weapons that miss or are decoyed away from combatant ships.

In mid-2004 Vice Admiral [[Michael L. Cowan]], the [[Surgeon General of the United States Navy|Surgeon General]] and chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, said that ''Comfort'' and ''Mercy'' should be retired and that "They're wonderful ships, but they're dinosaurs. They were designed in the '70s, built in the '80s, and frankly, they're obsolete."<ref name="globalsecurity"/>