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Washington: 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 US defense official told Reuters on Friday. The incident, the first of its kind in recent memory, took place on December 15 north-west 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. “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. “It’s certainly not something we consider to be commensurate with their level as a professional military.”

In a statement released later, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said that the swiped drone was “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.”

“Although the drone was not conducting a military operation, disrupting and then stealing the naval platform — which has sovereign immune status — is one of the most brazen actions that the People’s Liberation Army Navy has taken against the U.S. Navy for a very long time,” said Ashley Townshend, a research fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. The Defense Department said the Bowditch and the drone — an unclassified “ocean glider” system used around the world to gather military oceanographic data such as salinity, water temperature, and sound speed — were conducting routine operations in accordance with international law when a Chinese navy Dalang-3 submarine rescue vessel launched a small boat and intercepted the UUV. 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.
China's People's Liberation Army Navy seizes an underwater drone deployed by USNS Bowditch in the South China Sea; the United States files a formal diplomatic protest and a demand for its return.