PLA Navy news, pics and videos

A U.S. Navy unmanned buoyancy glider was taken 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 Chinese navy ship ASR-510, a Dalang III-class ship, approached within 500 yards of the Bowditch, launched a small boat, and seized the UUV,” the Pentagon said in a statement reported the BBC

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.

“This is an area of significant importance for future naval operations,” Eric Wertheim, author of U.S. Naval Institute’s Combat Fleets told USNI News on Friday. “While this ocean glider UUV may be low tech by comparison to other more advanced U.S. UUVs, the Chinese are known to be investing heavily in the development of their own unmanned underwater vehicles, and any additional information garnered from foreign systems could potentially prove useful to them.

The service has more than a hundred of the gliders that can transmit data back for more than a month at a time, Oceanographer of the Navy Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet said in October during an AUVSI conference in Washington, D.C.

The seizure of the glider is arguably a violation of freedom of navigation norms.

The following is the complete Pentagon statement on the incident.
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Iron Man said:

In any case, I won't fall for your idiocy here except to say that the only thing the Zumwalt reminded the PLAN of here is exactly how fragile the ship is, limping into port after suffering its THIRD engine casualty in only one year.

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Janiz said:

In any case I haven't seen a photo of PLAN ship damaged and I won't in my lifetime. If there's no photo there's no proof. Not to mention that they mastered the night landings aboard Liaoning, you can't prove that they haven't! And clumsy US Navy pilots make the same mistakes everytime... Not that one of the posters here that had seen numerous night landings (failed and successful) during the time that he served aboard few US Navy carriers said it can't be mastered and there simply pilots tat are better and worse with that. He's mad.

I'm waiting for a video of completely failed night landing aboard Chinese carrier. After that you can simply ban me from this board! Take my word! I'm just waiting for that footage. And I'm pretty sure that I won't see that during my lifetime.

I asked when did the last accident happened within PLAN? And some people forwarded me to 2003 accident that's similar to Russian Kursk catastrophy with some 70 sailors dead! Even in Russia under Putin there were protests from civilians about the tragedy...

If I were a military man and I could chose any place in the world I could work, then the answer would be simple. PLA. That's for sure!

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Jura said:

now I noticed
Updated: Chinese Seize U.S. Navy Unmanned Vehicle

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Jura said:

now I noticed
Updated: Chinese Seize U.S. Navy Unmanned Vehicle

... available in the source which is

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Chinese forces returned a U.S. Navy buoyancy glider to the service, the Pentagon announced in an early Tuesday morning statement.

The crew of U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Mustin (DDG-89) recovered the glider from the crew of the People’s Army Liberation Navy Dalang III vessel that took the unmanned glider from waters near the Philippines last week.

“Today, the People’s Liberation Army Navy vessel 510 returned a U.S. Navy Ocean Glider Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) to the United States, near the location where it had been unlawfully seized on Dec. 15.,” said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook in the statement.
“USS Mustin received the vehicle for the U.S. in international waters approximately 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay.”

The Chinese ship took the glider – one of two that was scheduled to be recovered by the U.S. Navy oceanographic survey ship USNS Bowditch (T-AGS-62) – near the same spot in international waters.

Before the crew of Bowditch could bring the glider aboard, a small boat from the Chinese ship that had been shadowing the U.S. ship was launched and took one of the two gliders.

Chinese officials claimed the glider was a hazard to navigation and they recovered the unmanned vehicle for the safety of the water. The U.S. took issue with Beijing’s interpretation of events.

“This incident was inconsistent with both international law and standards of professionalism for conduct between navies at sea,” cook said in his statement.
“The U.S. has addressed those facts with the Chinese through the appropriate diplomatic and military channels, and have called on Chinese authorities to comply with their obligations under international law and to refrain from further efforts to impede lawful U.S. activities.”

The glider is one of more than a 100 the U.S. Navy uses to measure ocean data.

“The Navy uses the gliders to collect ocean temperature, salinity and depth information, and transmit the unclassified data to

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for assimilation into NAVOCEANO’s operational ocean models,”

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,
Oceanographer of the Navy, wrote in a Monday Navy Live blog post.
“They are used by scientists and professionals around the world working in academia, the oil and gas industry as well as the military. Gliders have been the workhorses of the operational Naval Oceanography program for nearly two decades.”

The seizure of the glider prompted an early clash between Beijing and President-elect Donald Trump ahead of Trump’s inauguration next month.

Statement by Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook on Return of U.S. Navy UUV

Today, the People’s Liberation Army-Navy vessel 510 returned a U.S. Navy Ocean Glider Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) to the United States, near the location where it had been unlawfully seized on Dec. 15. USS Mustin (DDG 89) received the vehicle for the U.S. in international waters approximately 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay. The seized UUV is a sovereign immune vessel of the U.S. Navy which was conducting routine operations in the international waters of the South China Sea in full compliance with international law. It had just completed a pre-programmed military oceanographic survey route and was returning to the nearby USNS Bowditch (T-AGS 62). Ocean Gliders such as this are used regularly by the U.S. Navy and other militaries throughout the world.

This incident was inconsistent with both international law and standards of professionalism for conduct between navies at sea. The U.S. has addressed those facts with the Chinese through the appropriate diplomatic and military channels, and have called on Chinese authorities to comply with their obligations under international law and to refrain from further efforts to impede lawful U.S. activities. The U.S. will continue to investigate the events surrounding this incident and address any additional findings with the Chinese, as part of our ongoing diplomatic dialogues and the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement Mechanism.

The U.S. remains committed to upholding the accepted principles and norms of international law and freedom of navigation and overflight and will continue to fly, sail, and operate in the South China Sea wherever international law allows, in the same way that we operate everywhere else around the world.

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