A Chinese warship has seized an underwater drone deployed by a US oceanographic vessel in the South China Sea, triggering a formal diplomatic protest and a demand for its return, US officials told Reuters on Friday. The incident, the first of its kind in recent memory, took place on December 15 about 50 nautical miles north-west of Subic Bay off the Philippines just as the USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic survey ship, was about to retrieve the unmanned, underwater vehicle (UUV), officials said.
"The UUV was lawfully conducting a military survey in the waters of the South China Sea," one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It's a sovereign immune vessel, clearly marked in English not to be removed from the water - that it was US property," the official said. The Pentagon later confirmed the incident at a news briefing. It said the drone used commercially available technology and sold for about $150,000. Still, the Pentagon viewed China's seizure seriously since it had effectively taken US military property.