Two more commanders from the troubled 7th Fleet have been fired, the U.S. Navy said Monday, amid investigations into two collisions that killed 17 sailors this summer.

Rear Adm. Charles Williams, commander of Task Force 70, and Capt. Jeffrey Bennett, commander of Destroyer Squadron 15, were fired by Vice Adm. Phil Sawyer, the commander of the 7th Fleet, according to the Navy's statement.

Williams had tactical control of the fleet’s cruisers, destroyers, Carrier Air Wing 5 and the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, while Bennett oversaw destroyers assigned to the 7th Fleet.

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“Both reliefs were due to a loss of confidence in their ability to command,” the statement said.

Rear Adm. Marc Dalton, commander of Task Force 76, has taken over as commander of Task Force 70, and Capt. Jonathan Duffy, deputy commander of Destroyer Squadron 15, assumed duties as commander, the Navy added.

Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin was fired as commander of the 7th Fleet and replaced by Sawyer in August.

All three firings follow a spate of collisions in the Pacific region.

In June, the USS Fitzgerald destroyer collided with a Philippines-flagged container ship southwest of Japan, killing seven sailors.

The top three leaders of the Fitzgerald — commanding officer Cmdr. Bryce Benson, executive officer Cmdr. Sean Babbitt and Command Master Chief Brice Baldwin — were all fired following the incident.

About two months later, the USS John S. McCain guided-missile destroyer collided with a Liberian-flagged oil tanker east of the straits of Malacca and Singapore, killing 10 sailors.

Those crashes came after two other nonfatal incidents. The USS Lake Champlain hit a South Korean fishing boat in May, and the USS Antietam ran aground while trying to anchor in Tokyo Bay in January.