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.
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[Navy Captain Jeff] Davis said the USNS Bowditch, a civilian U.S. Navy oceanographic survey ship operated by the military’s Sealift Command, was recovering two of the gliders about 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay near the Philippines when the Chinese ship approached. He said the Dalang Class Chinese ship, which does rescue and recovery missions, sent out a small boat that then took one of the Navy gliders.
He said the Chinese ship acknowledged radio messages from the U.S. ship, but did not respond to demands the craft be returned. The U.S. issued a so-called diplomatic demarche, or formal complaint, overnight.
The Navy drone is a glider, about 10 feet long and less than two feet wide that can be programmed and moves automatically through the water collecting data on temperature, salinity, and other scientific facts used for sonar operations.
“It is ours. It’s clearly marked as ours. We would like it back, and we would like this not to happen again,” Davis told reporters. He said the drone costs about $150,000 and is largely commercial, off-the-shelf technology.
Stella's Place 
The World has no fear of Obama
I guess another “red line” is about to be drawn
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Won’t make any difference…………it will be drawn on the water.
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That’s right…rather then the sand
Which was merely stepped over by the enemy if my memory serves me correctly
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I fell I need to apologize to you Stella. I was the one on Twitter talking to you about this. I was in no way saying this was not a terrible breach of our country. I was just trying to make it clear to others who might be reading that the Chinese did not pull up to one of our destroyers and steal our drone. The Chinese are really going to push in the next 35 days to try and send a message to President Trump.
The have gotten away with so mush in the past 8 years and they don’t want that to change.
Hard to talk in 140 characters and I am still learning.
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No problem, although that isn’t what the AP report says.
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And whhhhhhhhere did you hear about the Spratleys recently, hmmmmmmmmm?
Lemme seeeeeee, hmmmmmm, a peaceful US Navy oceanographic ship doing peaceful mapping of the ocean floor, which probably have been mapped many times before due to its strategic importance gets one of its peaceful mission drones stolen by a peaceful Chinese Navy ship that specializes in rescue and recovery which just happened to be in the area of that peaceful Navy ship in contested waters.
Bwaaaahaaaaaahaaaaaaaa, ROTFL, wait…wait…lemme get a tissue…bwaaaahaaaaahaaaaahaaaa. Oh lemme recover here, wipe my eyes and catch my breath…beaaaahaaaahaaaaaa.
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The big laugh will be if the Drone is stamped “Made in Taiwan”…..
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Or worse, “Made in China.”
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