Are commercial sea drones new headache for PLA in South China Sea and Taiwan?
A crewless vessel’s footage of a Chinese warship operating near the Philippines highlights their potential intelligence-gathering role.
Source excerpt
Small commercial sea drones that have shown they can monitor PLA warships in the South China Sea have emerged as a new potential challenge for Beijing in the disputed waters.
Last week, Seasats, a California-based autonomous vessel maker, released footage – which has been verified by Reuters – showing its Lightfish drone operating near a Chinese Type 052D guided-missile destroyer on June 16.
The latest encounter reportedly took place 105km (65 miles) northwest of Luzon, the largest Philippine island, but the exact location was not disclosed.
The company did not respond to questions about who commissioned the drone involved in last month’s incident or what mission it was carrying out, but the firm has said previously that it had received more than US$100 million in US government contracts.
Bold News stores the normalized extraction for evidence and analysis. This public wrapper shows a limited excerpt; use the original link for the publisher's complete presentation.