The song from The Little Mermaid goes “Under the sea, darling it’s better down where it is wetter.” Well, not quite.
This week the hybrid war between Russia and the rest of the world took a new turn, with the seizure of the bulk carrier Vezhon by the Swedish Coast Guard. The details are provided in Sal Mercogliano‘s video – it is now the fourth ship that was suspected of dragging its anchor in the Baltic Sea and cutting an undersea cable. This time it was a cable which runs between Latvia and Sweden. Let’s unpack this situation.
There are hundreds of thousands of miles of cables that run across the ocean seabed around the world, divided mostly into those carrying communications and others that move electrical power to remote locations. Laying these cables is a tricky operation, and there are specialized ships that do this. By way of reference, you might enjoy this Fluctus video on how undersea cables are made, laid and repaired.
The videos show how the cables can deteriorate over time as various sea life attaches itself (think a thick layer of barnacles and lots of corrosion) – getting through that junk at underwater depths isn’t easy. Divers have had to develop new tools and repair methods.
Last summer we had a cable cut in front of my home as contractors installed new streetlights. They ended up severing a major AT&T fiber cable that had hundreds of individual strands. While working a few feet below the street wasn’t a picnic, it is nothing like the conditions faced to do these repairs on the seabed.
Much easier is how a ship’s anchor can be dropped and dragged along the bottom. The cables are clearly shown on marine maps – this is a feature and not a bug because prior to the Russian sabotage events, the marine transportation community wanted mariners to know where the cables ran so that ships would steer clear of them. Here is a more stylized map showing how many cables are laid in the Baltic region.
Sal’s analysis (I feel like we should be on a first-name basis because I have been a fan of his videos since the Baltimore bridge accident two years ago) concludes that having four cable cuts in a few months in nearly the same area is suspicious. An update has found that the ship’s anchor accidentally broke. Yup.
As a mariner himself he shows how anchors on these large ships are controlled and how easy it would be to lower one undetected by the ship’s navigators. He calls this part of a hybrid war – meaning that it combines the traditional “kinetic” war fighting (with guns, tanks, and missiles) with more technology-based things such as drones with careful targeting of digital infrastructure, such as seabed cables and satellite internet access. The hybrid nature also combines military targets with civilian ones, such as communication cables that connect countries.
Ukraine has deployed hybrid techniques in its war with Russia. And I am sure that we could find instances of US and our allies using similar tactics. What it means is that life under the sea has become the new battleground. Sorry, Sebastian!
Thanks for digging deep into this fascinating topic. Another thing to worry about, but so good to know. Nicki
You’re a wealth of interesting information, David! Thanks for keeping it interesting.
One of my readers pointed me towards this It is a fascinating account, and he actually says:
“Cutting a submarine cable is like starting a nuclear war. It’s easy to do, the results are devastating, and as soon as one country does it, all of the others will retaliate.”