



Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) found off Chinese Coast

China recently held its annual awards for fishermen who alerted authorities when discovering unfamiliar devices (e.g. UUV/AUV) in their nets. (Chinese media) The devices may have been operating in international waters, but still in China’s backyard, as they see it. Of interest are the unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs, aka AUVs). However devices which appear to be in the numbers have also included bombs, torpedoes, buoys, rifles and other curiosities.



This poster has been used to inform fishermen of the reward scheme. It uses internet sourced images of UUVs. Only the LBS-G glider (bottom center) was actually 'caught' by China, and not by fishermen. Note that the LBS-G is essentially the same vehicle as the Slocum Glider (top right):





In 2012 a fishing boat from Hainan Island discovered a torpedo-shaped drone in the South China Sea. That titanium drone had satellite communications and cameras. It was reported as an American device in Chinese media. It is broadly similar to a Kongsberg REMUS 600 but I have not been able to identify this model.











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In 2017 a possible Remus 100 UUV was discovered in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province. (Example media report). It was highly corroded.





However, possibly this was actually a torpedo which had been recovered previously:





Media coverage from the 2019 event, when 4 fishermen (3 male, 1 female) were rewarded, showed an Edgetech DF-1000 sidescan sonar towfish (or variant) being pulled from the water.









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The above photograph is probably posed. Another photo used by Chinese media to illustrate these events appears to be the same towfish but on a different ship:





In December 2016 a Chinese vessel lifted a US Navy Littoral Battlespace Sensing-Glider (LBS-G) from the South China Sea. It was being recovered by the U.S. Navy oceanographic survey ship USNS Bowditch. After protest, it was later handed back to an American warship.



This image may be an UAV:



