Reuters: Russian military tested new technology in northern Atlantic to disable undersea communications cables
Russian military personnel attempted to test new technology designed to disable undersea communications cables in the northern Atlantic Ocean in April, two Western officials told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.
Britain’s Defense Ministry announced in April that Russian underwater vehicles had been spotted in the northern Atlantic engaged in what it called malicious “activity over our cables and our pipelines.”
British military forces and their NATO allies detected a Russian submarine at the time, one that, it later turned out, was diverting attention from two underwater vehicles operated by the Russian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate for Deep-Sea Research (GUGI) that were active in the area.
Britain’s Defense Ministry stated the military made clear to the Russians that they had been detected, and the submarines subsequently left that part of the northern Atlantic.
Other details — including the exact location where the submarines were spotted and what they were doing — were not disclosed at the time.
Reuters sources said the submarines were spotted near Svalbard, where undersea cables connect the island to mainland Norway, and that the cables were not damaged.
Britain and Norway notified Russia that they were aware of the technology tests, according to the agency. “We have made it unequivocally clear to Russian authorities that any attempt to target our critical infrastructure will be detected and met with consequences,” Norway’s Defence Minister Tore Sandvik told the agency.
Reuters found that American military personnel, among others, also took part in the operation, a detail not previously reported.
It remains unclear whether Russian submarine operations in the Atlantic came up during CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow. The White House did not respond to a request for comment, and Reuters could not obtain comment from Russia’s Defense Ministry.
Reuters did not specify what new technology for disabling undersea cables the Russian military was testing.
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