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- Warning issued as British think tank urges government to develop undersea warfare strategy
NATO’s top commander has warned that Europe and North America are vulnerable to “undersea hybrid warfare” as Russia develops the ability to cut the cables responsible for maintaining online communications.
“More than 90 percent [the] The Internet is in the ocean. All links between the United States, Canada, and Europe are transmitted under the ocean and therefore have many vulnerabilities.
“We know that the Russians are waging a lot of hybrid warfare under the sea to disrupt the European economy through cables, internet cables, pipelines… This is a very important concern. , because it’s a security issue for nearly a billion civilians in NATO countries, he told the Guardian.
Admiral Maleterre V’s stark warning comes just weeks after British think tank Policy Exchange released a report urging government ministers to develop an “undersea warfare” strategy.
The 60-page report, which was supported by former British Defense Secretary Sir Michael Fallon, Air Marshal Lord Peach and former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord West, said plans to protect undersea assets were “integrated into the Royal Navy’s maritime doctrine”. ”. with the highest priority. ”
“Moscow has already begun investigating undersea infrastructure in the Atlantic as a vulnerable part of its national security,” Lord Peach wrote in the report’s foreword.
“Regular sightings of suspicious Russian activity in nearby waters, mysterious cable cutting incidents, and growing concern among friends and allies about the vulnerability of undersea infrastructure all point to a new era of undersea warfare. It shows that you have arrived.
A worldwide network of undersea fiber optic cables that crisscross the ocean floor is responsible. It carries approximately 97 percent of international communications.
Britain relies on cables like this, which snake from the United States across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.
According to a report by Policy Exchange, “99% of the UK’s digital communications with the outside world rely on this cable network.”
If some of these cables are damaged or disabled, it won’t just mean Britons won’t be able to access the internet on their smartphones or laptops.
Everything from agriculture and healthcare to military logistics and financial transactions would collapse, effectively plunging the country into an unprecedented recession.
But as world powers, particularly Russia and China, continue to develop sophisticated nuclear submarines and unmanned maritime drones, these critical undersea networks are becoming increasingly vulnerable to disruption.
And in shallower waters such techniques are not needed. The ship could simply drag the anchor along the ocean floor, rip the cable, and pass it off as an accident.
A similar incident occurred in October last year, when an anchor damaged a gas pipeline and several communication cables connecting Estonia and Finland in the Baltic Sea.
Investigators have not yet determined which vessel caused the damage, but said a Russian-flagged vessel and a Chinese-owned vessel were in “very close proximity” to the accident site.
Admiral Maleterre explained that these networks are largely developed by private technology companies and, as a result, are not designed to protect against military threats.
“They had no idea that a hybrid war like this would develop so quickly,” Maleterre said. “And it’s very difficult to monitor all the cables permanently. It’s not possible.”
But the difficulty in monitoring and monitoring thousands of miles of undersea cables is just one of the vulnerabilities, according to Policy Exchange.
“The current tactical, operational and technical situation provides significant advantages for attackers over defenders,” the report concludes.
“Easy access and near-impossibility to identify intentional interference means that such vast areas are difficult to monitor and police to a degree unmatched by other infrastructure targets. is combined with.
“The strategic advantages of disrupting these transnational digital connectivity systems make hostile actions, both below and above the threshold of conflict, an immediate and future threat in emergent undersea warfare.”
Concerns about the safety of submarine cables have existed for decades and were thrust into the public consciousness during the Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage in September 2022.
Some U.S. and European officials initially suggested Moscow had blown up its own pipeline, but Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed this interpretation as “ridiculous.”
Instead, Putin has blamed the United States, Britain and Ukraine, all of which deny any role, while the White House has accused American investigative journalists of implicating Washington behind the explosion. , dismissed Seymour Hersh’s blog post as “utterly false and a complete fabrication.”
Investigators have not yet concluded which parties were involved in the attack on Nord Stream.
But concerns grew a year ago when NATO intelligence chief David Cutler declared that Russia was likely mapping Western cable networks.
“Russia is targeting undersea cables and other critical infrastructure in order to disrupt life in the West and gain influence over countries that provide security to Ukraine,” Cutler told reporters in May 2023. There are growing concerns that this may happen.”
“The Russians are more active in these waters than we’ve seen in years,” he said, adding that they are patrolling more across the Atlantic than in recent years and have stepped up activity in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. added.
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