China steals unmanned US Navy craft

| December 16, 2016

USS Bowditch

According to our buddy, Kristina Wong at The Hill, the Chinese Navy has seized a US Navy unmanned underwater craft;

The USS Bowditch, a survey ship, was preparing to retrieve its unmanned drone out of the water, as part of their typical mission to collect data on the ocean and weather patterns, the official said. The drone had surfaced and sent out a signal as to its location per normal operations, the official said.

A Chinese ship that had been shadowing the Bowditch then dropped its own small boat in the water and swooped in to grab the drone, the official said.

The Bowditch crew then called over to the Chinese ship to ask for their equipment back. The Chinese crew confirmed receipt of the message, but began driving away, leaving with the drone.

So, the State Department has filed a strongly-worded rebuke and the Navy says that the matter is firmly in the hands of John Kerry. He’ll probably trade away half of the Pacific Fleet as tribute to his Chinese masters. C’mon, January.

Category: Navy

69 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
ex-OS2

Sigh….

desert

Yeh really! The chinese thought, thats a pretty neat machine, measure the bottom of the ocean, how come we never stole the plans for that? Oh what the hell, just steal the machine!!

Hack Stone

Time for some Judge Judy justice.

HMC Ret

Love me some Judge Judy.

2/17 Air Cav

It’s like last minute Christmas shopping for the ChiComs, the Russians, and the NorKs. Damn near omitted the Iranians. They have only 34 more shopping days until oBaMa and Kerry are out and, by God, they are going to get what they can.

OldSoldier54

So it seems. Lord save us from the people who voted for the clown – twice …sigh …

AW1Ed

JFK (did you know he was in Viet Nam?) will write a sternly worded letter. Sternly. Worded. Letter.

Casey

No doubt he will put them on double-secret probation…

OlafTheTanker

Has SALON blamed Trump yet?

Hack Stone

“Unmanned underwater craft”? Another misogynistic phrase intended to disenfranchise the brace women and men who identify as women that serve our country. Please change to read “Unpersonned underwater craft”.

desert

How about unisex sub lol

Deplorable B Woodman

Ffuuuuuuuuuuuucckkk…… (sigh)

11b-mailclerk

This will be labeled “false news” and embargoed to protect the outgoing team.

Anyone else come up with”act of war”?

Ambush bait?

26Limabeans

USS Maddox anyone?

Frankie Cee "In the Clear"

I am sure that the Demarche from State Department has the Chinese just crapping themselves. NOT!

2/17 Air Cav

You know what happens to a vehicle after it is impounded and searched for drugs? When the ChiComs get done, they’ll be able to fit most of the parts in cigar boxes. Have they invented anything in the last 1500 years or so? The whole country is a knock-off.

AZtoVA

THIS is why they spend so much less than us on Defense. We do all the R&D and then stand by as they make off with it all.

MustangCryppie

“…the Navy says that the matter is firmly in the hands of John Kerry.”

Oh, BOY! I feel better already!

Graybeard

The ChiComs pissing on the US Navy while they can.

MustangCryppie

Trump’s first decision on the SCS should to authorize a multi-nation naval exercise in those waters and daily FONOPS. Oh, and just happen to forget to invite the PRC to the exercise.

And the exercise should become an annual event.

Mick

It wasn’t that long ago when no one would dare to push us around like this on the high seas.

Sadly, now it’s almost becoming routine.

As Jonn said above, ‘C’mon January’.

And I’ll add ‘C’mon, Mattis’.

Commissar Poodle

That is false. Our ships were outright captured and attacked.

ex-OS2

“That is false. Our ships were outright captured and attacked.”

So you are saying we have a weak Navy?

Mick

Commissar:

WTF?

Did you actually read my post before you replied?

Apparently not.

OldSoldier54

I’m pretty sure he’s Dyslexic. Nothing else makes sense.

Casey

“It wasn’t that long ago when no one would dare to push us around like this on the high seas.”

I take it you weren’t around for the Cold War, then? The Soviets were quite fond of pushing the Navy, not to mention bumping. They were feisty buggers.

I’m still trying to figure out if the Chinese are trying to embarrass Obama, or Trump. Barry’s only got a month left, so this would be a good time to kick sand in his face.

On the other hand they might be aiming for Trump; make him look bad as president even though he hasn’t taken the oath of office yet.

I’m also wondering if it’s a good idea to remind the Chinese that the Soviets frequently bumped heads (almost literally) with the US Navy, yet came out second in the end. We don’t want them to learn any useful lessons.

…I’m wondering if SecDef Mattis (assuming he gets the statutory exemption) will re-introduce the real Chicago Way on the high seas. I don’t doubt most of the swabs wouldn’t mind that.

The Poodle, by the way, does have a bit of a point, at least with respect to the USS Pueblo. the Soviets were more likely to shoot down planes than attack ships.

Nonner

Easy solution: load those little fuckers with explosives that can be remotely detonated for the next time they try that stunt.

Nonner

Or maybe just some thermite or phosphorous.

A Proud Infidel®™

I’m ALL FOR C4 and Willy Pete!

desert

Terrific idea…excuse is…oops you messed up the mechanism stealing it and it blew up in your face LOL

CB Senior

Hey China our drone will self destruct in 10 minutes, RUN.

CB Senior

How do you get a bomb onboard a Chinese ship. Call it a drone. Ha Ha suckers.

MustangCryppie

Oh, it would be great if there was a self-destruct feature.

Pinto Nag

You’d think somebody would have thought of that?

Silentium Est Aureum

Let’s see…Iran, China, yeah, and all these libs were telling me for 8 fucking years that the world’s gonna love us and all that happy horseshit.

Yeah, not so much.

Commissar Poodle

This is a response to Trump’s idiotic statements about Taiwan.

And our treaty with Iran is a good thing and will improve relations if Trump does not fuck it up.

Fortunately Mattis agrees that the treaty is seen our interest and may keep Trump from screwing it up.

ex-OS2

“And our treaty with Iran is a good thing and will improve relations if Trump does not fuck it up.”

Sure, give the country nukes that burn our flag and celebrate “Death to America Day” on November 4th.

2/17 Air Cav

Yes, the treaty with Iran was a good thing. It dates to the days of the shah. However, the deal that The Emperor made, the deal that is not a treaty or an amendment to one, is bullshit. Phukers are violating it and we’re paying them off NOT to abrogate the oBaMa deal. Mattis would level Iran in a NY second. The word is he was invited to retire five months early because he smelled shit and pinched his nostrils publicly. Dafuq fantasy land are you existing in?

Pinto Nag

I hope I never live in what you call reality.

11B-Mailclerk

Zampolit: “This is a response to Trump’s idiotic statements about Taiwan.”

And all the other saber rattling and provocative actions that came before Trump were in fact time-travel responses to Trump’s phone call with Taiwan, not because Obama is perceived as pushover-weak and demonstrably red-line unresponsive. Right.

Trump is not even in office, and now he takes up responsibility where Bush ended, with no gap or intermediate person (whoever that might be…).

“Its not our fault!” might have worked for Kei and Yuri, but it is kinda lame for a political party, and your various Red masters. And it is a notable part of why we wound up with Trump.

And thanks for your efforts that assisted the Trump victory. Anyone here that might have had doubts, or considered the left plausible, you made highly effective arguments that removed any doubt of the possibility of brilliance and trustworthiness of the left.

Zampolit, you are often a reliable “see and say” toy for politics. But you are almost always stuck on “The moonbat says … BARK! BARK! BARK!”

desert

BULLSHYT! that poodle needs clipping!!

TankBoy

Chi-coms keep screwing around, they’ll get a sternly worded apology and a plane full of money! The Obama administration is nothing if not decisive with the apologies!

A Proud Infidel®™

AND IF they’re NOT careful they could end up receiving TWO “Pretty Pleases” from B. Hussein 0bama & Company while “Lurch” Kerry eats another plate of quiche.

Dinotanker

Im really liking the idea you guys have about a self destruct feature. What an awesome way to say keep your mitts of our stuff. There ought to be some kind of an audio warning though; spoken by someone from deepest Arkansas in a dialect of Mongolian that hasn’t been around for say…500-600 hundred years. That way we could always say that well we did include a non-tamper warning…and it ought to have a UL sticker on it somewhere too.

Graybeard

Have you seen the booby-trapped packages folks put on their front porch to deter Christmas package thieves?

Some folks are getting pretty creative.

A Proud Infidel®™

The exploding package of dog shit is my favorite, I LMAO when the thief gets out of the car to vomit at the end!

Graybeard

Sweet justice!

11b-mailclerk

Radio: Hey! If you like that drone, youll love this one.

To Wepons officer: Match generated berings, and shoot!

One away sir!

Radio: this one comes apart for study, all by itself.

SFC D

“The Chinese crew confirmed receipt of the message, but began driving away, leaving with the drone”.

Reports cannot be confirmed that the actual radio acknowledgment was “fuck you, round eye! all your droneboat belong us now!”

Ex-PH2

It would be nice if the data on the drone turned out to be something really important like access to the pron sites sailors like to frequent and the addresses of the the whorehouses in HongKong’s red district.

Hey! Chinese guys! Call me!

Old 1SG, US Army (retired)

Need to send in the USS The Deplorables… with skipper Lt. John “JFK” Kerry at the helm… that should scared the piss out of them!

Stern warning:

“John F. Kerry reporting for duty sir… BTW, you do know that I served in Viet Nam?”

2/17 Air Cav

“And I patrolled the jungle alone–well, alone except for my cameraman. You might say I was Vietnam’s John F. Kennedy except I had more Purple Hearts.”

Claw

“except I had more Purple Hearts” and the highly coveted Silver Star with Combat Distinguishing Device.

You need proof? It’s right there on my DD214.

timactual

Evidently none of our Admirals remembers the USS Pueblo. Or the continuing misbehavior of China towards everyone else who dares trespass in “Chinese territorial waters”.

Blame Kerry and Obama all you want, but I doubt they made the decision to send a ship evidently incapable of self defense into hostile waters.

UpNorth

You’re right, perhaps we should focus our attention on Ray Mabus, again?

SFC D

Ray would want to rename the Pueblo because of “cultural appropriation” or some silly shit.

deckie

USNS Bowditch is civilian crew, so they wouldn’t stand a chance really. They’re all small arms and rifle/shotgun qualified but nowhere near the skill level in use of force that military personnel would be.

Not sure how many military are aboard, at one time her sister the USNS Bruce Heezen had some to guard the scientists and their work spaces, but not many. Not sure if that is still the case today. Don’t remember seeing any military personnel coming or going from the Mary Sears while we were next to her in Busan.

HMC Ret

I wonder if o has time for one last around the world apology tour?

Atkron

All China is going to hear is the AFLAC Quack of a lame duck.

Holden Magroin

Could the mandoratory reflective belt have given it away?

Holden

Sapper3307

Will the knock offs be at Walmart for Christmas?

Pinto Nag

Probably ebay. Less red tape and a higher potential profit.

lily

John Kerry “I am deeply saddened by the events that happened in the pacific between China and the occupation power. China did provide health care to it citizens so we have decided to let them have the drone. That way more jobs can be created in China and we will have less terrorism”

Roger in Republic

Perhaps the next time we deploy a drone it should be accompanied by a carrier battle group. Or a couple of hunter-killer subs to keep it company.

Slick Goodlin

Admiral Sandecker should get Dirk Pitt, Kurt Austin and
Juan Cabrillo on this tight away.

Ex-PH2

Why isn’t this thing set up as a Transformer?

And why do they have to retrieve it when it should be transmitting its data as it goes, and then take a nose dive to the bottom of the Pacific?

I think that these Cylon thingies should be able to not only turn into weapons of mass destruction if picked up by the wrong people, but should also be able to self-destruct on an as-needed basis. Piracy never died, you know. It’s getting worse all the time.

SkyNet goes active at 12:04 CST.

WarEagle82

Seizing a naval vessel is an act of war.

What part of this does Obama and the Chinese not quite get?

FatCircles0311

Iran got a US drone
China got a US drone
All our enemies get a US drone!

Thanks, Obama.

Ex-PH2

Yes, but, per the evening news report, China has agreed to return the drone, saying it was a ‘navigational hazard’ thingy.