Authorities in the Philippines are examining what appears to be a Chinese ocean glider-type uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) that a fisherman ‘caught’ earlier this week. At least three similar, if not identical undersea drones were found in various locations around Indonesia between 2019 and 2020. The design looks to be one ostensibly intended for maritime research use, but that could also have military applications.
A fisherman recovered the UUV approximately six miles (nine kilometers) off the coast of the San Pascual municipality in Masbate, an island province in the Philippines that lies in the central section of the archipelago nation, on December 30, 2024. The drone, which is said to be around six and a half feet (two meters) long, was turned over first to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and then to the Philippine Navy.
The predominantly yellow-painted UUV has a torpedo-esque main body with a single fin and stinger-like protrusion at the rear end. There are also two larger wing-like fins, which are black, attached to the body. Pictures the PNP has released show “HY-119” and “HY-L0119” markings on the rear of the drone.
“Based on our open-source research in the internet… HY-119 refers to a Chinese underwater navigation and communication system,” PNP Bicol regional director Brigadier General Andre Dizon told AFP. “It has an antenna and an eye that can be used for viewing. Based on our research, this can be used for monitoring and reconnaissance.”
Pictures, seen below, do show an aperture or port on top of the nose end of the UUV, as well as what may be rows of smaller ones behind it. There is no obvious propulsion system, which we will come back to momentarily.
The UUV recovered near San Pascual looks virtually identical, at least externally, to ones that fishermen in Indonesia recovered on at least three separate occasions between 2019 and 2020. The drones found around the Philippines and Indonesia also have very strong similarities to the Chinese Sea Wing ocean glider-type UUV, which the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed more than a decade ago. Underwater drones of this type use an internal system to alter their buoyancy, repeatedly diving and then surfacing to move forward in the water, aided by the fins along the body and at the tail. Past Chinese state media reports have claimed that Sea Wing can operate for up to 30 days and dive down to a depth of nearly four miles.
Officially, CAS has used Sea Wings for various underwater research purposes, including measuring the strength and direction of currents and water temperature, oxygen levels, and salinity using acoustic and other sensors. As TWZ has noted in the past, these are common tasks for glide-type drones, which are also in service with the U.S. Navy and other military and civilian organizations globally.
Glider-type UUVs, in general, are also known to be employed for hydrographic survey work and to otherwise support the creation of underwater maps. Having highly accurate charts detailing the contours of the seabed has obvious military utility, especially for submarine operations.
Underwater gliders can be used to support other kinds of military activities, as well. For instance, the U.S. Navy has said in the past that it uses these kinds of UUVs to help “service” fixed underwater sonar sensor “fields.” However, UUVs of this type do offer far more limited capabilities overall than more advanced underwater drones that have been and continue to be developed and fielded, including by China, in recent years.
-It is also worth noting that the line between civilian research capabilities and military ones is often muddled in general in China. The country’s state-run civilian scientific and engineering organizations like CAS and its subdivisions have close ties directly to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
It does remain unknown what the UUV recovered near San Pascual was doing at the time, as well as whether it was operational or had stopped functioning and drifted there from somewhere else. At the same time, as was the case with the ones that fishermen ‘caught’ around Indonesia years ago, its appearance, especially in waters well within the bounds of the Philippines archipelago, has real potential national security implications. The PNP itself has made this clear. All of this is only further underscored by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) own brief seizure of a U.S. Navy glider-type underwater drone in the hotly contested South China Sea back in December 2016.
“The recovery of the HY-119 system has significant implications, as it provides insights into advanced underwater technology and naval capabilities,” the statement from the PNP’s Bicol office adds. “Authorities are closely examining the device as to its origin and to assess its potential impact on national security and maritime operations.”
The Philippines could well reach out to allies and partners, especially the United States, to further assist with its ongoing investigation. The U.S. military and the U.S. Intelligence Community have particularly robust so-called Foreign Materiel Exploitation (FME) enterprises that specialize in gleaning a wide variety of information on capabilities and other aspects of captured or otherwise acquired non-American systems. You can learn more about the U.S. government’s FME ecosystem in this past TWZ feature.
The recovery of the UUV near San Pascual also comes at a time of particularly heightened geopolitical friction between China and the Philippines, primarily over Beijing’s widely rejected claims to virtually all of the South China Sea. Last year saw especially aggressive actions on the part of the Chinese Coast Guard and Maritime Militia ships over Scarborough Shoal, which an international tribunal affirmed as belonging to the Philippines in 2016. Chinese authorities continue to ignore that ruling.
In the meantime, authorities in the Philippines have stressed that if anyone finds any more underwater drones or other similar objects that they should not touch them and immediately contact the PNP.
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