Russia and China are targeting vital underwater cables in terrifying ways that could send us back to the Dark Ages, a new book reveals
On November 15, 2024, a Chinese-flagged cargo ship called the Yi Peng 3, laden with mineral fertilizer, left the Russian port of Ust-Luga and pushed into the Baltic Sea. Two days later, the ship crossed over an undersea communications cable connecting Sweden and Lithuania.The line went silent.
Less than 24 hours later, the Yi Peng 3 cruised past the only communications cable connecting Finland with Germany, and it too went dark.European investigators soon discovered both subsea cables had been physically severed and that the Yi Peng 3 was at the scene of both incidents.It seemed like sabotage, but little could be done about it.
The countries impacted could only ask China for help with the investigation, which was declined.The ship slipped away. Since the Yi Peng incident, insidious sabotage has only become more prevalent around the world, and the pace is picking up.
Mysterious fires have swept weapon plants in Estonia, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.On Aug.
20, Romanian air force scrambled two F-16s to blow up an intruding robotic boat loitering near a Black Sea gas platform with hundreds of workers on board.And in September the FBI charged five people working for Russian intelligence services who were soliciting arson and murder around the world, including in the United States. Security experts call these “hybrid attacks,” and they are getting more common and more violent.
They are perpetuated in a gray zone between war and diplomacy, where shady actors are used to create deniability for a nation’s provocative actions.Now comes author Elisabeth Braw’s new book “Undersea War: The Battle to Control the Cables and Pipelines That Connect Our World,” to enlighten readers on another vulnerability to worry about — the underwater spaghetti bowl of pipelines and cables that support the modern world.
The globe is stitched together with a network of underwater communication cables and energy pipelines.There is an estimated 2...