Vital communications cables ‘at risk of attack from Russian Navy’

RUSSIA’S navy could attack undersea communications cables connecting Europe and the US and disable internet access, the head of Britain’s armed forces has warned.

Air Chief Marshal Stuart Peach said the Russians’ ‘modernised’ navy had the ability to disrupt the transcontinental cables and that the UK had to bolster its naval forces to counter the threat.

Some of the most important cables that connect the US and Europe emerge in Ireland.

His warning comes amid a row over defence spending and sources have pointed out that the UK currently has had no submarine-hunting maritime patrol aircraft since 2010, while ships and submarines which could also protect the cables have fallen too.

The chief of the defence staff gave the speech only days after a think tank said an attack on the cables would deal a “crippling blow” to security and commerce and the “threat is nothing short of existential”.

A former head of the British navy on Thursday said Britain was unable to fully protect the fibre optic cables carrying the digital lifeblood of the internet, because its anti-submarine warfare forces had been neglected.

The warning comes as Britain’s Ministry of Defence is lobbying the Treasury for more money, which it says is needed to stave off defence cuts.

Mr Peach told the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) that the modernisation of the Russian fleet was forcing Nato to do more to protect sea lines of communication.

Delivering his annual Christmas lecture, he said: “There is a new risk to our way of life which is the vulnerability of the cables that criss-cross the seas. Imagine a scenario where those cables are cut or disrupted which would immediately and potentially catastrophically affect both our economy and other ways of living.

“Therefore we must continue to develop our maritime forces, with our allies, to match Russian fleet modernisation.”

Around 97pc of global communications are transmitted through the cables laid on the sea bed.

The cables form the main arteries of the internet and transmit an estimated £7trn (€7.9trn) in daily financial transactions.

Some of the busiest connections cross the Atlantic and come ashore at remote locations in the UK and Ireland.

But the cables often have minimal protection and are at increasing risk from Russian naval activity or terrorism, according to the report.