A FOREIGN government agency is about to take over the search for MH370 after a fruitless two years scouring the southern Indian Ocean under the direction of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB)

The country that has stepped up to the plate is China and the agency is the China Rescue and Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Communications. The vessel taking on the daunting task is called the Nan Hai Jiu 102.

According to the Singapore-based MacArtney Underwater Technology, which has been contracted to install the vessel with a winch for the deep tow sonar system, the search will be “reinitiated in June 2016 by an Australian-based search team”.

In April, the Chinese sent a search vessel, the Dong Hai Jiu 101, to join the Fugro Equator and the Fugro Discovery in the hunt for the missing Boeing 777 and it’s likely to continue working alongside the Nan Hai Jiu 102.

News.com.au sought comment on the development from Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester but he declined to address the question, issuing instead a statement about next month’s “tripartite meeting” on MH370 involving Chinese, Malaysian and Australian officials.

A notice in this month’s edition of Oceanlogy International stated that Nanhai Rescue (a division of the China Rescue and Salvage Bureau) had ordered “two Teledyne Benthos deep-tow systems with QINSy software from QPS through reseller Geo-Marine Technology”.

“The deep-tow systems will be used in the search for MH370,” the notice said.

“QPS will add extra functionality for this project, such as obstacle avoidance for the tow fish. Sensors on the tow fish include multibeam and dual-frequency sidesman sonar.”

The tow fish has been lost on two occasions in the current search — once coming loose after colliding with an underwater volcano.

MacArtney has created a page on its website which provides more detail about the capabilities of the Nan Hai Jiu 103.

“MacArtney has won the tender to supply a MERMAC R40 winch for a Benthos deep tow sonar system,” the website says.

“The winch is to be installed on board the search and rescue vessel Nan Hai Jiu 102 and the search for flight MH370 is going to be reinitiated in June 2016 by an Australian-based search team.

“The MacArtney MERMAC R electrically driven winch in question is a robust and advanced vehicle handling system which safely controls the launch, operation and recovery of ROVs and towed vehicle systems.”

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Managing Director of MacArtney’s Asia Pacific Operations, Steen Frejo, told News.com.au that the Nanhai Rescue would start work “as soon as the vessel and all the equipment is ready”.

The ATSB has repeatedly said it will end its search by July at the latest, with no plans to extend the current search area — a 120 sq km zone off the west coast of Australia known as the “7th arc”. However, recent comments by ATSB chief Martin Dolan suggested the deadline may be extended to make up for bad weather stalling operations.

“We have some way to go and our best bet is that we will complete that search late July, early August, depending on unforeseen circumstances,” he told The Australian newspaper on Friday.

“The technical capability is there to continue the search but the resources to do it is a matter for government.”

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board on March 8, 2014.

With less than 15,000 sq km left to be searched, Mr Dolan admitted hopes of recovering the plane are fading.

“At this point there is a diminishing level of confidence that we will find the aircraft,” he told the Australian.

“There will be a lot of disappointment if we don’t find it. At worst we will know at the end of this process that the area we have searched does not contain the aircraft. At best we will find it.”

Five pieces of wreckage believed to have come from the missing plane have so far been recovered — none were found in the search zone — but there has been no sign of the fuselage or the black box.

News that the search will be continued by China will be welcomed by the grieving families of those on board MH370, who have been left in limbo since the plane vanished. Authorities still don’t know why or how it happened but it is hoped that with fresh eyes, answers will come.

News.com.au approached Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester for more details on the Chinese search and the identity of “Australian-based search team” but no answers were forthcoming.

Instead, Mr Chester issued a statement saying: “A tripartite meeting of senior officials is scheduled to be held in June, which will pave the way for a ministerial level meeting planned for mid-July.

“These meetings are expected to take place prior to the completion of the 120,000 square kilometre search area in the southern Indian Ocean to discuss the search.”

Mr Chester added: “Without any credible evidence that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, there will be no further expansion of the search area.”