That drone sub Trump said China could keep—what was it doing, anyway?

Posted on by

Enlarge / The USNS Bowditch, doing its thing.

This past week, a submarine rescue vessel from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) came up along the USNS Bowditch, a US Navy civilian oceanographic vessel—and sent out a boat to snatch one of two uncrewed ocean “gliders” being recovered by the Americans. The snatch-and-grab triggered a week-long diplomatic standoff accompanied by tweets from the President-elect:

China gave the glider back today. A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson claimed that his country’s sailors saw the glider as a potential hazard and were acting responsibly when they grabbed it. “I want to say we strongly dislike the term ‘steal’ as it’s entirely inaccurate,” the spokesperson said. Earlier, Chinese officials claimed that the gliders were likely being used to spy on China’s operations in the South China Sea or perhaps locate routes traveled by PLAN’s submarine fleet.

The gliders are long-endurance, slow-moving submarine drones that are used for oceanographic data collection. They can be remotely controlled on runs lasting as long as 30 days, and they use shifts in their own buoyancy to propel them.

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – That drone sub Trump said China could keep—what was it doing, anyway?