A missing unmanned submarine that eluded the US Navy for a week was found Tuesday by a man strolling along a beach in western Norway, reports CNN.
The 3.5 meter (11-foot) mini-sub, or Battlespace Preparation Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, disappeared April 29 during tests off the port of Kristiansand in southern Norway, the network said.
The mini-submarine, which is not remote controlled, is programmed to chart the seabed and search for mines, and contains classified equipment worth millions.
It's mother ship, the minesweeper USS Swift, broke of its participation in the NATO exercise to search for it in vain. A local television network said the navy also had deployed specially trained dolphins in the search.
"On Monday, the crew of its mother ship, the minesweeper USS Swift, said that they considered it lost for good," CNN quoted Cmdr. Thom Knustad, a spokesman for the Norwegian joint command, as saying.
It finally surfaced a Wednesday about 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the north.
A man going for walk along the coast near Stavanger, on Norway's west coast, spotted a small, torpedo-like object marked "Department of Navy" grounded just off the beach and called the police Tuesday, CNN said.
"A police officer went to the scene, found the submarine and pulled it into land," Arvid Jensen, of the Stavanger police, told Norwegian news agency NTB.
On Saturday, a British-made mini-sub of similar design also went missing off the coast of Southern Norway, said the Norwegian daily Aftenposten. It is yet to be found.
