NATO turns to specialist divers to test anti-sabotage defenses for highly vulnerable submarine cables

• NATO pit elite divers against new sensors to protect submarine cables from destruction.

• Foreign adversaries are increasingly targeting submarine cables and underwater infrastructure.

• The training marks another change in the way NATO countries are preparing for future warfare.

NATO has sent a variety of special operations forces to test new systems designed to help protect critical underwater infrastructure from damage and destruction, a growing problem.

Underwater cables and pipelines that provide internet and power connections have been damaged in a series of shocking incidents in recent years, with suspected vandalism having been thrown around several times in the past few months.

These incidents highlight the vulnerability of these lines, but the NATO alliance is looking for answers.

Last fall, elite special operations units within the NATO alliance routinely bypassed underwater electronic detection sensors as part of an effort to improve the protection of critical underwater infrastructure. NATO shared images this week of the November training event – Exercise Bold Machina 2024 in La Spezia, Italy – and leadership comments.

The 13-nation event was the first of its kind, said US Navy Capt. Kurt Muhler, director of naval development at NATO Special Operations Headquarters, and was designed to test new sensors that could be used to defend against waterborne sabotage efforts. The exercise, first reported by Defense News, also tested a variety of joint special operations personnel and their capabilities to operate in highly visible combat environments.

Divers on offensive missions may not always be able to rely on dark, clear water to conceal their movements, Muhler, who holds SEAL team leadership positions, said, citing further advances in underwater detection system technology.

“He doesn't know if anyone knows, or if he's being discovered,” Mhler told Defense News last fall. “It is understood that there is a system that has the ability to see you, but you know nothing about it and you do not know exactly what the ability is.”

Undersea cables, pipelines, and other critical underwater infrastructure are at risk

The joint exercise in Italy comes as damage to critical underwater infrastructure has become a growing concern for Western officials trying to prevent further damage to cables from ships that are often quietly linked to the Russian and Chinese governments.

Several underwater cables have been damaged in the past two months, including a communication line connecting Finland to Germany and another connecting Finland to Estonia.

Finnish officials said they had found a channel about 60 miles under the sea that suggested a ship linked to Russia may have been responsible for cutting the cables. And at about the same time, the cables connecting Germany and Finland and Sweden and Estonia were damaged by a Chinese ship that was found nearby when the damage occurred.

Such damage has prompted British defense officials to launch a new joint operation with 10 European countries across the Baltic Sea, using artificial intelligence to monitor potential threats to ships.

Undersea cables are an important part of the international communications infrastructure and the global economy – some 745,000 miles of cables reach the depths of the world's oceans and help transfer 95% of international data, including about 10 billion dollars in transactions every day.

NATO officials highlighted the growing threats to the cables from Russia last year, noting the monitoring activity from Russian units focused on maritime destruction. But the barrier to entry into vandalism is not very high. Russia has a fleet of submarines known to specialize in water damage, but cables are also damaged by commercial ships simply dragging anchors on the seabed.

And concerns about underwater cable risk and infrastructure damage are not limited to European waters. Damage to cables last week off the coast of Taiwan left officials on the island suspecting deliberate damage from China.

“An underwater base is difficult to defend and difficult to attack,” said Alberto Tremori, a NATO Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation scientist who helped oversee NATO's November mission. “It is not easy to protect it because it is a complex place, it is a big place.”

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