A U.S. Navy bouancy glider similar to one seized by Chinese forces.
A U.S. Navy unmanned bouancy glider was take by Chinese forces in international waters earlier this week, two defense officials confirmed to USNI News on Friday.
The glider was operating with U.S. Military Sealift Command ship USNS
Bowditch (T-AGS-62) about 50 miles off of Subic Bay in the Philippines when a People’s Liberation Army Navy ship took the glider both defense officals said.
“A Chinese naval ship that had been shadowing the Bowditch put a small boat into the water. That small boat came up alongside and the Chinese crew took one of the drones,” CNN reported on Friday.
The gliders, far from the Navy’s most sophisticated unmanned vehicles, are used by the service as oceanagraphic survey tools. The gliders largely use unclassified means to collect data for the Navy’s charts and ocean models. The service deploys the systems for months at a time and they transmit data back to the Navy.
“While the service has more than a hundred of the gliders that can transmit data back for more than a month at a time, the service has been limited in the platforms it can deploy the gliders from, Oceanographer of the Navy Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet said in October during an AUVSI conference in Washington, D.C.,” USNI News reported last month.
However, the seizure of the glider is arguably a violation of freedom of navigation norms.
https://news.usni.org/2016/12/16/breaking-chinese-seize-u-s-navy-unmanned-vehicle