Chinese warship seizes US underwater drone in international waters

The seizure of the drone is also a reflection of the struggle occurring under the surface ofthe 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 Trumps 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 Chinas 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, Brixey-Williams said. It allows Chinese scientists to better understand the USs 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 Chinas 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.