The U.S. Navy will hack apart a minesweeper ship worth $277million that is caught on a coral reef in the Philippines - rather than risk further damage to the sensitive ecosystem.

The USS Guardian has become a political and logistical nightmare for the Navy since it ran aground on January 17 in the Sulu Sea.

Navy engineers decided their only option is to destroy the 225-foot ship by cutting it up and hauling it away on a barge, instead of trying to drag it off the reef.
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