Pentagon officials are accusing the Chinese Navy of theft today after one of their ships made off with a US underwater surveillance drone, which officials described as “lawfully conducting a military survey” in the South China Sea.
Details on the incident are still emerging. The USNS Bowditch deployed 2 such drones somewhere in the South China Sea. The Pentagon described the incident as occurring “about 100 miles” from Subic Bay, which likely puts it in the vicinity of the Spratly Islands.
The Bowditch was being followed by a Chinese Navy vessel, the ASR-510, a Dalang-III class rescue and salvage ship. The Bowditch had its drones deployed about 500 meters from itself, and while Pentagon officials described the Bowditch itself as being in international waters, they weren’t clear whether the drones were. Obvious the US and China also have different concepts of whose maritime waters are whose in the South China Sea as well.
The Chinese ship deployed a smaller salvage vessel, and scooped one of the US drones out of the water. The other drone made it back to the Bowditch, and officials say personnel on the Bowditch demanded the ASR-510 return the first drone, but the only response they got was that the Chinese ship was resuming “normal operations.”
The drone itself is of little consequence, being made of off-the-shelf components costing only about $150,000, and not believed to contain any real sensitive technology or information that has been lost.
At the same time, Pentagon officials are furiously demanding China return the drone, noting that they clearly had written on the drone that it was the property of the US military and that this therefore gave it “immunity” to being scooped out of the water.
In the end, the reasoning behind China taking the drone is totally unknown, but with Pentagon officials overtly carrying out previous operations in the South China Sea simply to spite China, it may well be a tit-for-tat measure from their view.
This is the war you’ll need to kill before it begins.
Putin would be pleased if there is conflict between the US & China. Despite BRICs, there are major flashpoints between Russia and China coming. Warming due to increasing CO2 will allow new resource extraction in the region. This is well known in government circles and among oil and mineral interests.
Putin will encourage Trump to increase belligerence towards China. Mark my words it is coming.
I realize most or all of the writers and readers here will reject what I write, due to their entrenched ideological positions & sometimes personal advantage. I prefer to dispassionately view as much evidence from as many sources as possible & leave my feelings out of it.
I do not disregard your view. It makes as much sense as everything else, eh? Who deals with the rules anymore?
Actually the US ought to do a reverse Nixon, opening to Russia to recruit its help against China. Russia fears China moving on its empty Eastern territories, and with good reason.
No worries, China immediately decided to return the drone after Trump Twittered them for their ‘unpresidented’ act.
That’ll teach China. The ol’ smack them on the head with a thesaurus always works.
I have a daughter who is a graduate student in oceanography at the University of Science And Technology in Hong Kong. Her prof told her colleagues at CalTech had offered to lend them a $2 million autonomous underwater research vehicle, designed to do underwater temperature and flow measurements. She asked why he didn’t take them up on it.
“Oh, we couldn’t possibly do that,” he said. “Someone would steal it.”
Apparently anything that gets dropped in the water around Hong Kong gets stolen. This professor said government research buoys, weather stations, and even navigation buoys are routinely lifted by fishermen, who then call the University or government agency and tell them their equipment is being held for ransom.
So the Chinese taking this drone is pretty routine for people who live in the area. The military ship that scooped it probably just did it out of habit.
You mean the drone DID have “Made in China” stamped on it?
Sure, Chinese paramilitary ship accidentally scoops up a US Navy drone by accident, trying to ransom the wrong victim. They can sell you a bridge too.
I had a system that used to run diagnostics on the Chinese cell phone system a few years ago. We were selling them a custom plug-in circuit board for about $100.00. The customer put something like $100,000 of effort into copying it so they could steal it.
We only learned about it when an engineer came back from a site visit and threw one on the table. “Anyone see what’s wrong with this?”
The circuit board was the wrong color. It was orange. We used only green. Everything else was perfect; even the quality stamps and stickers were copied.
That’s why I use the word, “habit”. It’s from painful experience.
“Pentagon: Give It Back, We Had Our Name on It”
Thanks a lot guy, I spilled my drink all over the place ROFLOL.
Although, the drone may have had “Made in China” written on it and it was an honest mistake.
100 miles from Subic is Scarbourgh Shoal. Spratlys are way off in the middle of nowhere.
This is a larger issue, because drone operations are likely to increase dramatically. The US is planning both submarine drones and antisubmarine swarm operations by drone.
Manned ships are the territory of the state whose flag it flies. Does a drone fly a flag? Is it territory of that state? These are unanswered questions because there have never been drones before.
If one side can grab them up, then both sides can. If one can’t then neither can the other. How do we want done off Hawaii or San Diego what we do off the Chinese Navy bases in the China Seas?
No worries unless “gone fishin'” becomes “gone fission”.
The South China Sea now is like the Balkans before WWI.
There there there there.