Russian spy subs targeting under-sea cables, says MOD

‘Warfare beneath the waves is changing’ as UK moves to defend crucial communications network

THE growing threat to Britain’s undersea cables from Russian spy submarines will be a “priority” for the MOD in the future, The Daily Telegraph has been told.

The Defence Secretary has strongly hinted sub-sea operations will feature prominently in the Integrated Review into foreign policy, defence, security and international development, expected to report later this year.

Writing in The Telegraph recently, Ben Wallace “The MOD that emerges from review will be a much more threat-led organisation, pivoting away from what we have become used to in recent decades, and reshaped to operate much more in the newest domains of space, cyber and sub-sea.”

An MOD source told The Telegraph that Mr Wallace “has identified sub-sea domain as a priority in coming years”.

Under-sea cables, vital to the country’s economy and society, are considered a vulnerable part of Britain’s Critical National Infrastructure.

Russian submarine operational deployments are now at the highest level since the end of the Cold War. In the last decade, the Russian navy has significantly increased the frequency with which it deploys submarines to the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Ryan Ramsay, a former Navy submarine captain, said: “The risk to the UK is real; I know from having worked as a director in a fibre company and having been involved in intelligence most of my military career in the Submarine Service.”

Mr Ramsay, who led the world-renowned Perisher course designed to select future Navy submarine commanding officers, said: “Russian undersea warfare expansion began in 2009 and it’s been incredible – measured, planned – a strategy by a country that recognises the strength of submarine intervention. A key part of that was to lever off their almost unique capability to tap under-sea cables.

“While the UK Submarine Service has a really effective capability to track, taking action at present is a gap that needs to be closed rapidly – it can affect our economy, our existence.”

Half a million miles of fibre-optic cables thread across ocean beds around the world, carrying 97 per cent of global digital communications, including $10trillion (£7.63trillion) of financial transfers and the processing of 15 million transactions each day. The cables are predominantly owned by private companies and are largely unprotected by international law.

Each strand of fibre inside the cables can carry up to 400GB of data per second, or around 375million phone calls.

A defence source told The Telegraph: “Warfare beneath the waves is changing – and the Armed Forces is changing with it to meet that threat head on.

“Adversaries including Russia have poured money into boosting their navies so they can operate with greater reach and frequency across the globe.”

Russia’s host submarines can carry mini-subs fastened underneath their hulls, which are able to dive to depths of up to 3,000ft. The smaller spy submarines have skids so they can sit on the sea bed and use robotic arms to tap or cut the fibre optic cables.