Chinese warship steals US Navy underwater drone

The Chinese Navy stole a U.S. Navy underwater drone in international waters in the South China Sea as U.S. researchers watched, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday.

The Chinese stole a research “glider” from the oceanographic ship. Here, engineers inspect a littoral battlespace sensing glider aboard the USNS Pathfinder in 2010. (Navy photo)

The Bowditch had stopped to recover two “ocean glider” unmanned underwater vehicles when a Chinese ASR-510 Dalang III-class ship came within 500 yards of Bowditch, put a small boat in the water and picked up one of the drones. The Americans demanded it back over bridge-to-bridge radio. China acknowledged the radio communications, proving there were no technical issues with the radio, but ignored the request, Davis said.

“The only thing they said after they were sailing off into the distance is we are returning to normal operations,” Davis said.

The Bowditch is a civilian-manned Navy ship. The ocean glider is “completely unclassified,” Davis said, and collects information like salinity, water temperature and clarity of the water in the ocean.

A formal demarche was issued to China last night via diplomatic channels. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook released a statement calling for the return of the vessel, which is clearly marked as a U.S. drone.

“The UUV is a sovereign immune vessel of the United States. We call upon China to return our UUV immediately, and to comply with all of its obligations under international law,” Cook said.

U.S. research drones are often followed in case they are spying or collecting intelligence, but the drone picked up by the Chinese was just measuring ocean conditions, an official told CNN.