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US says Chinese warship seized Navy underwater drone

Ahlevah

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A Chinese warship seized a U.S. Navy unmanned underwater glider that was collecting unclassified scientific data in the South China Sea, and the U.S. is demanding its return, the Pentagon said Friday.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the U.S. has issued a formal diplomatic complaint over Thursday's incident, but he was not aware of any response yet. He said this may be the first time in recent history that China has taken a U.S. naval vessel. There have been periodic incidents over the years between U.S. and Chinese military ships and aircraft.

US says Chinese warship seized Navy underwater drone

Yeah, "free trade" means "free American drone" while sending the U.S. the message that it's not welcome in the South China Sea even though this incident occurred only fifty miles from Subic Bay.
 
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Yeah, "free trade" means "free American drone" while sending the U.S. the message that it's not welcome in the South China Sea even though this incident occurred only fifty miles from Subic Bay.

They should explode horribly, when someone tampers with them.
 
They should explode horribly, when someone tampers with them.

Or when we press a button. :devil: Oops we sunk your battleship. ;) Do that a couple of times, it will cure that problem right quick. What are they going say? We deliberately allowed them to steal one of our drones so we could blow up their ships?
 
They should explode horribly, when someone tampers with them.

I'd settle for a giant dye pack, like they give to bank robbers, loaded with red Mao dye.
 
This is being speculated as a response to Trump tweaking them on Taiwan. It will be interesting to see if they return the drone before January 20th.
 
I'd settle for a giant dye pack, like they give to bank robbers, loaded with red Mao dye.

That is how it should mark the spot, where the detonation sunk the chinese boat.
 
The Chinese will return it......after they've taken it apart and documented everything there is to know in how it works.

****ing thieves. That's how they come up with a good chunk of their military equipment: Stealing tech info from others.
 
Is there something illegal about what they did?
 
Yeah, "free trade" means "free American drone" while sending the U.S. the message that it's not welcome in the South China Sea even though this incident occurred only fifty miles from Subic Bay.

"Unclassified scientific data?"

Was it monitoring the migration of whales, counting the numbers of fish, keeping track of Chinese warships, recording temperatures of the water, what?
 
The Chinese will return it......after they've taken it apart and documented everything there is to know in how it works.

****ing thieves. That's how they come up with a good chunk of their military equipment: Stealing tech info from others.

Orrr sub contracting defense corporations sent so many specs over the chinese have a good idea what goes into drones and such things.... I have no doubt the chinese are as much a part of our defense industry as any US based corporation... :peace
 
The Chinese will return it......after they've taken it apart and documented everything there is to know in how it works.

****ing thieves. That's how they come up with a good chunk of their military equipment: Stealing tech info from others.

Why research something when you can steal it? Unfortunately for the Chinese, a lot of the equipment in our military, the process's to make the good stuff is NOT ordinary and very difficult to reverse engineer if you don't know about the process. One of the reasons they still cant make jet engines like the west or even the Russians even though they have plenty of originals from which to duplicate.
 
Well, maybe China will counterfeit our drone and sell us back some cheap knock-offs. Imagine the money we'd save.

Make America Great Again. Indeed.
 
Or when we press a button. :devil: Oops we sunk your battleship. ;) Do that a couple of times, it will cure that problem right quick. What are they going say? We deliberately allowed them to steal one of our drones so we could blow up their ships?

I believe they would say that's an act of war.
 
In international waters isn't it illegal and against international maritime law to grab another nation's marine equipment? Would certainly seem to be reasonable. Can't have nations ship-jacking each other's vessels like Somali pirates, right?

Given Obama's track record in the international arena, I doubt that he'll mount any sort of meaningful challenge to the Chinese that they'd take seriously.

The two have been dancing all around the South China sea for quite some time, and Obama's responses always come across as tentative, tepid, and without force or conviction, which results in little more than emboldening the Chinese and other bad actors internationally.

It's a no-brainer that the Chinese want to gain the technology, so they'll be taking it apart and studying it, I'm sure. But I figure that the Chinese have until Jan 20th to figure out the things works and get the all crib notes they can from it, before they'll have to give it up. Trump strikes me to be of a similar vein as Regan in such a situation, but then, we'll see. May very well be Trump's first test of presidency.
 
Is there something illegal about what they did?
Yes stealing another country's stuff while in international waters is illegal. Did you really think it wouldn't be.
 
"Unclassified scientific data?"

Was it monitoring the migration of whales, counting the numbers of fish, keeping track of Chinese warships, recording temperatures of the water, what?

Sorry, don't know.
 
The Chinese will return it......after they've taken it apart and documented everything there is to know in how it works.

****ing thieves. That's how they come up with a good chunk of their military equipment: Stealing tech info from others.

To be fair, it's much more likely that Obama made arrangements for this to be a form of delivery.
 
I don't either.
and we may never know for sure.

The press accounts I've read placed the seizure of the drone about 100 miles west of Manila Bay, which, coincidentally would put it within a stone's throw of Scarborough Shoal, a disputed reef in the South China Sea. So maybe the research ship got lost while studying the mating call of the Narwhal and unintentionally ran into the Chinese with its "off-the-shelf research drones." :shrug:
 
And even if The Donald isn't getting all of his security briefings it's apparent he's keeping up with current events even as he coined a new word:

Donald Trump responded to China’s seizure of an unmanned U.N. Navy vehicle on Saturday, calling it an “unpresidented act” in an apparent typo.

“China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters - rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act,” the president-elect tweeted Saturday morning.

Trump slams China's seizure of U.S. drone in tweet - POLITICO
 
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