A Royal Navy warship and P8 maritime patrol aircraft have tracked three Russian submarines, including two GUGI-class deep-sea vessels, attempting to survey undersea cables and pipelines in the North Atlantic during a month-long operation, UK Defence Secretary John Healey told a Downing Street press conference on Thursday morning.
Healey said the Russian activity took place while international attention was focused on the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, and that the Russian subs abandoned the mission without damaging any infrastructure.
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Unfortunately, the cables themselves are difficult to harden. A typical armored submarine cable is roughly 1.4 inches in diameter, wrapped in galvanized steel wires around a copper sheath and optical fibers. Anchor drags from large commercial vessels remain the primary threat to them, and additional steel plating can’t reliably prevent a snagged cable from being ripped up. Close to shore, cables are buried, but only to limited depths.
It’s not just Europe that’s facing undersea cable sabotage. Taiwan has had to increase its coast guard patrols and legal penalties after a series of cable cuts in 2023 and 2025. Last year, a Taiwan court sentenced the Chinese captain of a Togo-flagged ship to three years in prison for intentionally damaging a cable.
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