Posted on 12/16/2016 9:04:21 AM PST by mandaladon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Chinese Navy warship has seized an underwater drone deployed by an American oceanographic vessel in international waters in the South China Sea, triggering a formal diplomatic protest
from the United States and a demand for its return, a U.S. defense official told Reuters on Friday.
The incident, the first of its kind in recent memory, took place on Dec. 15 northwest of Subic Bay off the Philippines just as the USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic survey ship, was about to retrieve the unmanned, underwater vehicle (UUV), the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The UUV was lawfully conducting a military survey in the waters of the South China Sea," the official said.
"It's a sovereign immune vessel, clearly marked in English not to be removed from the water - that it was U.S. property."
The Chinese seizure will add to concerns about China's growing military presence and aggressive posture in the disputed South China Sea, including its militarization of maritime outposts.
A U.S. think tank reported this week that new satellite imagery indicated that China has installed weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, on all seven artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea.
The seized underwater drone was part of an unclassified program to collect oceanographic data, including salinity, temperature and clarity of the water, the official added.
Such data can help inform U.S. military sonar data, since sound is affected by such factors.
The United States issued the formal demarche, as such protests are known, through diplomatic channels and included a demand that China immediately return the underwater drone.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
It’s another Obama regime handover.
The article is blaming Trump for talking with Taiwan...
FU CNN YOU LOST!!!!
How ya doing. I hope well.
“Right, and I’m Santa Claus.”
Nice to meet you. I’m the queen of England.
5.56mm
It’s a survey drone mapping the bottom. The extent to which any country’s (underwater) continental shelf might be shown to extend into the South China Sea might bolster that country’s claims to islands, resources and juridiction over shipping lanes.
China doesn’t want to negotiate any potential claims to the sea floor, resources, shipping lanes or islands.
Pay back for Trump’s Taiwan phone call. The Chinese know the Marxist Muslim wont even comment on it. They dont do this if Trump is president.
Too bad it wouldn't detonate when they tried to open it up.
Years ago, when the Sidewinder AA missile was being displayed at an air show, I asked the AF guy why someone couldn't just open up a captured piece and copy the works. He said that at soon as the first screw was turned, all the electronics were fried.
Hope something like that is involved here, but if this was made under the obama administration . . .
Merry Christmas Sir or Madam as the case may be.
This is just another instance of Obama rules of
engagement. The same people who want to take away
your right to be armed to protect your self and your
property have done the same thing to our nation.
I would expect this captain to not look forward to
any more advancement.
He’s got a couple weeks left to squeeze in some golf in Hawaii. While he’s away his surrogates will blame Bush and Trump.
You may be right, nothing is impossible with
this lame duck excuse for a leader.
“..Can you draw a red line in the ocean?..”.....sure Big Zero can use the same one he used with Syria.
It probably has “Made in China” parts anyway.
Next time, equip the thing with explosives...
Truth be told, what could they do? They did about all they could. The plane was spying on China and landed on their territory. What could they do to make them give it back? Start bombing? Unwise to attack a nation of 1.4 billion that is nuclear armed. When our U2 plane was shot down over the USSR, they held Gary Powers for TWO YEARS. There was little that could be done. In Korea in the 1950’s, we paid to get hold of a MiG so we could learn their secrets. This kind of behavior is common among competitors.
The thing is, China won’t need it next time.
THIS TIME is when they got it.
The drone was probably made in China in the first place and sold by Drones-R-Us.
Expect O to be real tough on this since he wants to create problems, like Russia, that dump onto the new POTUS lap.
“The plane was spying on China and landed on their territory. “
The aircraft was performing intelligence collection in international airspace. It crash-landed on their territory because one of their untrained pilots collided with it.
We should have gifted them some cruise missile technology and destroyed our aircraft on their runway.
kinda nutty. it’s being carried by every news organization on the planet right now.
Blame Trump/Putin.
“I think sinking the Chinese ship would be fully justified.”
Perhaps. But how is an American oceanographic vessel going to sink a Chinese warship?
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