South China Sea Forum

[beijingwalker]

 

[Pangu]

Haha, nice catch, that's a plentifully harvest in the SCS.

 

[j20blackdragon]

The US will continue to conduct hundreds of missions per year in the SCS. This won't deter us.

Please sail as close to the islands as you like. The closer the better.

 

[Indika]

Please....the reality is China stole an oceanographic drone gathering scientific data in international waters. That makes you thieves. No wonder your neighbors have no trust in you.

The US will continue to conduct hundreds of missions per year in the SCS. This won't deter us.

In retaliation why does not US steal chinese ship or sub?

 

[Hrk19]

A Chinese Navy ship stole an American oceanographic underwater drone in the South China Sea approximately 40 miles west of the Philippines and about 150 miles from Scarborough Shoal, an area contested by the Chinese and the Philippines, two U.S. defense officials told Fox News.

The incident occurred around noon Thursday local time. The Chinese ship had been shadowing the American ship, USNS Bowditch for days.

The research ship was owned by the U.S. Navy but operated by Military Sealift Command, with a crew of contracted civilian mariners and scientists.

The Chinese have been regularly shadowing U.S. Navy vessels in the South China Sea for months, Fox News was told.

According to the USNS Bowditch ship's website, the ship is used to "support worldwide oceanography programs, including performing acoustical, biological, physical and geophysical surveys." Fox News was told the underwater drone was used to map the sea floor and other oceanographic data.

The drone was worth roughly $150,000 dollars. After the Chinese vessel plucked the drone out of the water, the American research ship attempted to call the Chinese ship over bridge-to-bridge radio, but to no avail.

The State Department launched a formal protest known as a demarche by the U.S. Ambassador and delivered to the Chinese government today, Fox News was told.

There was no immediate comment from the State Dept when Fox News reached out for comment.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/12/16/china-steals-us-underwater-drone-in-south-china-sea.html

Really China? So now your stealing drones conducting legitimate scientific research in international waters? Pathetic...

in case you forgot its their ocean
plus the Philippines and them are on good terms now,so you can get lost from there now

 

[HAIDER]

The drone was being used in sampling and data collection of the surface, midwater and ocean floor measurements at the time. Pictured it a US Bluefin-21 drone

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ater-drone-South-China-Sea.html#ixzz4T1nB86Mk
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[Basel]

Please....the reality is China stole an oceanographic drone gathering scientific data in international waters. That makes you thieves. No wonder your neighbors have no trust in you.

The US will continue to conduct hundreds of missions per year in the SCS. This won't deter us.

US have used this scientific research as cover since Cold War. CIA is very well known for using those tactics.

 

[Devil Soul]

Chinese warship seizes US underwater drone in international waters
Official says drone deployed by American oceanographic vessel in South China Sea was taken by Chinese navy on Thursday

The Chinese navy has seized an underwater drone in plain sight of the American sailors who had deployed it in international waters, in a seemingly brazen message to the incoming Trump administration.

According to a US defence official, the unmanned glider had come to the surface of the water in the South China Sea and was about to be retrieved by the USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic and surveillance ship, when a Chinese naval vessel that had been shadowing the Bowditch put a small boat in the water.

Chinese sailors in the small boat came alongside the drone and grabbed it despite the radioed protests from the Bowditch that it was US property in international waters. The incident happened about 100 miles north-west of the Philippines’ port of Subic Bay.

The US has issued a formal protest and demanded the return of the glider.

“The UUV [unmanned underwater vehicle] 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 US property.”

The seizure of the drone is also a reflection of the struggle occurring under the surface of the South China Sea. As China develops a strategic submarine fleet, with the potential to carry nuclear missiles out into the Pacific Ocean, the US has built up a monitoring network designed to spot Chinese submarines as they leave their bases. Drones are key to the network, and there is a race under way between major naval powers to develop drones that can work together in swarms and “see” long distances through the water. Underwater gliders are drones that can stay underwater on the lookout for submarines for long periods of time.

“This looks like signalling from the Chinese in response to Trump’s Taiwan call,” said Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “It is hard to believe this is the action of an independent commander. The Chinese now have much better control over the military, particularly the navy. It is in China’s interest to send signals before Trump is inaugurated, so that he gets the message and be more restrained once he is office.”

Sebastian Brixey-Williams of the British American Security Information Council said: “Nuclear states are increasing anxious about unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs, or underwater drones) autonomously tracking their nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), making them vulnerable to antisubmarine warfare. This is an issue for China in particular, whose SSBN fleet is small and noisy. Though the USNS Bowditch is an oceanographic ship and may sound harmless, the kinds of data it is collecting will make Chinese submarines easier to find over time.

“China therefore accomplishes a number of things by seizing a US underwater drone,” Brixley-Williams said. “It allows Chinese scientists to better understand the US’s offensive technical capabilities in this area, and potentially allows them to reverse-engineer them, bringing gains in both the commercial and military spheres.”

Glaser pointed out that the Chinese have frequently tested the US when there is a new administration. In the early months of the George W Bush administration, in 2001, the Bowditch was involved in a close encounter with a Chinese frigate which turned on its gun control radar and forced it to retreat. A week later there was a collision between a US spy plane and Chinese warplane off China’s Hainan island.

At about the same point in the early Obama administration, in March 2009, a number of Chinese navy ships harassed another US oceanographic vessel, the USNS Impeccable, coming as close as 50ft away, trying to snag its acoustic equipment with hooks, waving flags and demanding the Impeccable leave the area.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/16/china-seizes-us-underwater-drone-south-china-sea

 

[maximuswarrior]

Nicely done by China. Don't return it now. That should send a strong message. That should also serve as a warning to Trump.

 

[JOEY TRIBIANI]

Why dont Chinese start doing research near hawaii?

 

[JOEY TRIBIANI]

Please....the reality is China stole an oceanographic drone gathering scientific data in international waters. That makes you thieves. No wonder your neighbors have no trust in you.

The US will continue to conduct hundreds of missions per year in the SCS. This won't deter us.

Lolz ok

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Wow sounds like an extreme act of desperation...rather low for China. Luckily the data is unclassified.

 

[Hindustani78]

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 US asked China to “immediately” return its unmanned naval probe in international waters in the South China Sea which it alleged has been “unlawfully” seized by them. “Using appropriate government-to-government channels, the Department of Defense has called upon China to immediately return an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) that China unlawfully seized on December 15 in the South China Sea while it was being recovered by a US Navy oceanographic survey ship,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said.

The Chinese seizure will add to concerns about China's growing military presence and aggressive posture in the disputed South China Sea, including its militarisation 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.

The Chinese have acknowledged the demarche but not responded to it, the official added.

 

[ashok321]

https://twitter.com/x/status/809791169702096896

 

[haviZsultan]

Good work China. Enough time to show some assertiveness and combat the foremost tyrant of the world today. When America crumbles we will celebrate.