Serious stuff! Apparently, the current capabilities to inspect or repair subsea cables are not very well developed.
Notice the critical distinction between severing and damaging a cable.
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Key Takeaways
- Nations are more reliant than ever on ocean infrastructure—especially undersea telecommunication cable networks, power cables, and pipelines. This increasing reliance has far outstripped advances in technology and increases in the capacity to repair, inspect, and militarily act when this infrastructure is damaged.
- Unlike in most other domains, only some undersea actions have a sudden impact.
A severed cable or destroyed pipeline is almost immediately known, but a damaged cable may fail many days, weeks, or months later. - There are many challenges to determining who was responsible for an attack (and why) in the undersea arena. And the level of attribution has a direct effect on which actions can and cannot be taken against the actor responsible.
- The legal authorities and laws regarding undersea actions are complicated and poorly defined.
Severing cables, destroying pipelines, surveying infrastructure, and placing sensors clearly constitute an act of war worthy of military response only if the action is of catastrophic effect to the nation (e.g., causing severe economic damage or major ecological crisis). - Ultimately, advantage in the undersea knife fight will accrue to states that can rapidly understand incidents, credibly demonstrate and control detection and response capabilities, and calibrate actions in ways that shape adversary behavior without precipitating unnecessary escalation.
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