New technologies and the law of naval warfare.

19.1 On 15 December 2016 a Chinese warship seized a US naval unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) being recovered by the USNS Bowditch, a US Navy oceanographic ship conducting surveys in the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), approximately 80 kilometres northwest of Subic Bay in the South China Sea. ¹ The United States claimed that the UUV, a state of the art 'ocean glider' system used to gather military oceanographic data such as salinity, water temperature and sound speed, seized by the Chinese while it was being \ recovered by US Navy crew, was being used for 'routine operations in accordance
with internationallaw:² China returned the UUV a few days later, asserting that a Chinese naval lifeboat had encountered 'an unidentified device in the waters of the South China Sea' and had captured the device in order to examine it and prevent it 'causing harm to the safety of navigation and personnel of passing vessels:³