China deploys large-scale underwater drones in Indian Ocean: report

New delhi date. 31 December 2020, Thursday

China has deployed a large fleet of underwater drones known as gliders in the Indian Ocean, said HI Sutton, a defense analyst, in a report. Which can work for months and keep an eye on the Navy's covert objectives.

In his report for Forbes Magazine, he said that China was deploying these gliders on a large scale. The Gliders are a variant of the Uncryed Underwater Vehicle (UUV), which was launched in mid-December 2019 and was recalled in February. He made more than 3400 observations during this period.

Citing government sources, the report said the gliders were similar to those deployed by the US Navy and were seized by China in 2016, with one of them assigned to ensure safe navigation for ships passing by. "If this is to be believed, it is very annoying that China is now deploying such UUVs on a large scale in the Indian Ocean," he wrote in the report. China has also deployed Sea Wing in the Arctic.

He said that according to reports in December last year, it was being said that China would launch 14 such gliders in the Indian Ocean but only 12 of them were used. It has no fuel system for propelling. This glides down into the ocean with the help of large wings. They are not very fast and agile but can work on that long mission.

These Chinese gliders in the Indian Ocean are allegedly gathering information linked to oceanography, the report said. Which in itself is not a bad thing. However its data is also used for the Navy's covert purposes.