back to article Russian subs prowling near submarine cables: report

In what sounds like a return to the Cold War Era, United States defense types are warily watching Russian submarines cruising around its own – and other countries' – submarine cables. Submarine cables have spread far and wide of late and provide the backbone of the Internet and, as such, have great strategic significance. …

  1. Sokolik
    WTF?

    Question of Balance?

    Like we Yanks and probably the UK probably haven't already done the same thing? T'would seem unlikely. No-one needs me to say the next war will be heavy on the cyber front. Perhaps in my ignorance, I should be surprised, but I am not.

    1. Peter Simpson 1
      Happy

      Re: Question of Balance?

      But...it's not illegal when WE do it!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Question of Balance?

        The USN submarine USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) is DESIGNED AND BUILT for this role. According to Wikipedia...

        Obviously a ruse to cover its actual role, stealing lobsters.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What about tapping? I've seen it repeated that US subs tapped some underwater cables. Could Russia be trying to do something similar?

    1. FrankAlphaXII

      They could be trying. Its a hell of a lot harder with fiber optics than with the copper cables that were being used by the Soviets during the Cold War though. I mean it could be possible, but I don't know of any "weird" boats that the Russian Navy uses, which isnt to say they don't have any, I just don't know if they do or not. You can't just use a stock attack sub or boomer for it, its gotta have some specialized equipment.

      The US Navy used to do it all the time though, check out the histories of the USS Halibut (SSN-587) after 1965 and USS Seawolf (SSN-575) post-1971. They were what we used to tap their cables. That is, until the Soviets figured out what was going on. Anecdotally (I've heard this from NSG Spooks with CT* ratings and a guy with an Intelligence Specialist rating who were all in the Navy at the time) because some cookie pusher at the State Department fucked up and asked a Politburo Central Committee member about something she couldn't have known about unless we were listening to them over a Submarine cable, this politician went and reported it to the KGB, which a couple of months later had the information stolen by the GRU who immediately had the Soviet Navy banging away at their cables with active sonar looking for the collection devices. The Soviets didn't bother encrypting anything sent over the cables because the Imperialist running dog pirates had no way of intercepting them, or so they had thought.

      In reality, John Anthony Walker ("Johnnie Walker Red") probably found out about it and told the Soviets, as his son who was a member of the spy ring was stationed aboard the USS Simon Lake (AS-33) and the tenders were privy to things that the rest of the Pac and Lant fleets weren't, like what the individual boats were doing, where and when. When even the toilet paper order goes through the same supply system that missile and reactor parts do, really mundane shit ends up with an exceptionally high classification, and the Walkers were selling as much as they could to the GRU.

      The Soviets located and then hauled one of the collectors up to the surface. The geniuses at the NSG or maybe even the NSA itself forgot to pull the riveted metal "Property of US Government" tabs off of them, at least on that one. The game was up at that point.

      So much for plausible deniability eh?

      1. h4rm0ny
        Pint

        Fascinating post - thank you!

        1. Androgynous Cupboard Silver badge

          I questioned the abilty of anyone to realistically tap undersea fibre in an earlier reg article and was slapped down in the comments [1]. So at least someone thinks it's possible.

          (Why are hyperlinks in comments no longer working?)

          [1] http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2015/01/06/snowden_leaks_hype_and_lack_of_context_bad_for_understanding/#c_2404367

      2. Peter Simpson 1
        Black Helicopters

        ...or maybe they figured, by the time the Russkies had gone to the trouble of pulling up the damn cable, the jig was probably up, anyway, so why not have a bit of fun with them?

        Reminds me of the microVAX story...which you can read here:

        http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/pages/russians.html

      3. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Blind Man's Bluff

        A very good account of that (and much, much more) is in this book:

        https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/20/reviews/981220.20naftalt.html

        1. Richard Taylor 2

          Re: Blind Man's Bluff

          The Russians took better care with their codes and ciphers than the Nazis.

          They had (have) some very good mathematicians as well and had probably learnt a lot about the human errors which exposed enigma.

      4. Grikath

        "The geniuses at the NSG or maybe even the NSA itself forgot to pull the riveted metal "Property of US Government" tabs off of them, at least on that one."

        While plausible ( I wouldn't be surprised if the pencilpushers insisted on just such a tag being included on everything, damn common sense.) , at the time a simple dry remark along the lines of: "oh yeah, sure. Like we'd be so stupid to leave an identifying tag on something even if we did such an alleged thing. It's not as if the russkies aren't capable of bolting on a tag themselves or something. It's not as if they aren't good at manipulating stuff and all, y'know..." would have done the job.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      perhaps the Russian subs tap tapping US subs?

  3. Winkypop Silver badge
    Linux

    SpongeVlad Squarepants

    I wonder what this does.....?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Reds are under the bed!

    Sky is falling! Russkies are everywhere! Panic!

    We've been there before, haven't we?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy

    1. Elmer Phud

      Re: Reds are under the bed!

      And it's all because Corbyn is leader of the Labour party, innit?

      I'd not seen such vitriolic scaremongering since the McCarthy era -- he's responsible for just about everything it seems.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Reds are under the bed!

      Many Americans think that the UK has a socialist government and can't understand by Obama hasn't invaded us.

      A bit too much Fox-News? Maybe but that shows how far right they are and anything left of the Democrats is regarded as being close to 'commie' in nature.

      Strange place the USA. Once you get out og the DC/NTC/LA bubbles some of the views of the population are... well rather strange when compared to ours.

      The view that the NHS is a socialist ideal/commie plot is also widespread despite the fact that it was conceived by people from all the major parties in WW2 and had the backing of Chruchill.

      He made several speeches as PM during WW2 proposing universal healthcare for all from cradle to grave. Yet to many people he is considered to be a right-winger.

      1. Richard Taylor 2

        Re: Reds are under the bed!

        Strange place the USA. Once you get out og the DC/NTC/LA bubbles some of the views of the population are... well rather strange when compared to ours.

        But it is often a very familiar place. Having lived in the US for a number of years, I (mostly) found it vey comfortable with liberal (in the best sense of the word) live and let live principles.

        1. Peter Simpson 1
          Windows

          Re: Reds are under the bed!

          Once you get into the deep South...or any of the more remote regions, some of the locals hold somewhat...unusual...views of things. Witness, for example, the recent JADE HELM follies in the more remote areas of Texas.

        2. Androgynous Cupboard Silver badge

          Re: Reds are under the bed!

          > live and let live principles.

          terms and conditions apply.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Reds are under the bed!

      Snowden screwed up the "universal surveillance to protect against terrorists" line, as too many were starting to question going so far as even 9/11 killed less than 10% of the people who died on America's highways that year. So they need to bring back the Russkie threat and demonize Putin into someone so crazy he might push the button and kill millions with all his nukes. Then we gotta give up our remaining freedoms, because Russian agents are everywhere and even discriminating against brown people with beards isn't enough!

  5. Sokolik

    Oh, and another thing...

    ...please pardon the old-curmudgeon rant:

    <rant>I am tired of hearing "back to the Cold War" tagged to everything the Russian Federation does geopolitically. I served honorably twice in two branches during the Cold War, most of it in SAC. When we return to Looking Glass, all missiles on 24/7/365 alert and pre-targeted at Russia, bombers and tankers on 24/7/365 alert with target-packages for Russia, and probably an appropriation for a new ICBM (we're still relying on the good ol' Minuteman III), then, yes, we will be "back to the Cold War"*.</rant>

    * For my health, I confess, I deliberately avoid the news. So maybe one or all of these things already have happened. But I doubt it.

    1. FrankAlphaXII

      Re: Oh, and another thing...

      Quite agreed. They haven't even retargeted the Tridents yet, the Navy made a big deal when they de-targeted so I'd imagine they'd say something if they retargeted them. They're still actively downsizing the cruise missile and bomber fleets, and the B-1s haven't been re-nuclearized.

      As soon as they do the opposite of any of that, we can say that its the Cold War again, til then its Russia willingly getting itself into the Middle Eastern quagmire, which isn't very Soviet like. The Soviets were never stupid enough to openly fight in the Middle East. They always had proxies do it for them. If anything, it shows the lack of political clout that Russia possesses anymore.

      1. Nolveys

        Re: Oh, and another thing...

        The Soviets were never stupid enough to openly fight in the Middle East.

        Weren't they having a jolly good time in Afghanistan in the '80s?

        1. DropBear
          Trollface

          Re: Oh, and another thing...

          "Weren't they having a jolly good time in Afghanistan in the '80s?"

          Damn right they did. I should know - I've watched Rambo...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oh, and another thing...

        If anything, it shows the lack of political clout that Russia possesses anymore.

        That is one way to explain it. The other way is zero sum game.

        USA and especially the republicans - destabilize Middle East, retain Iran off the main oil markets to ensure that the cost of oil is high enough for the "friendly" Saudis to make ends meet and for the fraking investment (which is astronomical and underwritten by long term loans calculated for a high oil cost) to recoup so that USA own economy does not tank. Kicking Russia in the process is bonus points.

        So, what would be the Russian answer?

        Easy to guess - the opposite. Stabilize Middle East (even if this means installing dictatorships), get Iran on the main oil market, sabotage Saudi economy so they stop financing lunatics around Russian borders, sabotage Oman and Qatar investment into liquefying gas for Eu export which competes with them by dropping the price. Kicking USA in the process is a bonus point. Side effect from bringing Iran on the market - China no longer buys oil from Iran at a discount sub-market rate (as it could not sell to anyone else) and pays market rate same as all of us. That is the real reason for the recent Chinese jitters by the way. They see the writing on the wall - while for the rest of us the cost of oil will drop, for them it will go up. China sneezes, USA catches a massive flu due to the debt and trade balance relationship. In the meantime, while oil and gas price drop will hurt Russian economy these are not the only commodities it can export. So it is not hurt anywhere as badly as Saudi or USA.

        Which one will succeed? That depends, at the current level of investment and with the current balance of powers of proxies my bet will not be on the USA. The previous gamble in Afganistan succeeded because it invested in anyone and their dog regardless of how insane they are provided that they are against Russia and in staggering amounts. That is not the case now. The investment has not been as indiscriminate and it has not been anywhere as big. Anyway, we will see in a couple of years. For now, pass the popcorn please.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Oh, and another thing...

          If you think the Saudi government is a friend of the US can I interest you in buying a bridge in London ?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh, and another thing...

      <rant>I am tired of hearing "back to the Cold War" tagged to everything the Russian Federation does geopolitically

      <rant>I am tired of hearing "when England won the World Cup" tagged to everything every English Sports person / team that was a complete failure since has done

  6. Nolveys
    Meh

    A better man than I once described the feelings I have on this subject:

    “I have one rule that I live by. I don’t believe anything the government tells me. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.” – George Carlin

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A better man than I once described the feelings I have on this subject:

      Ah, the carefree quippery of a comedian who hasn't got the elected responsibility of running a country. How easy it is to ridicule the 5% of government that is politics whilst also denigrating the 95% that is simply getting the job done.

      With attitudes like that you may as well not have a government, or move to Somalia.

      1. Chris G

        Re: A better man than I once described the feelings I have on this subject:

        @AC a citation for your figures please! Or is it slmply that you got your numbers round the wrong way?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: A better man than I once described the feelings I have on this subject:

          AC a citation for your figures please!

          Well, maybe he thinks foreign policy has been a success, what with the removal of Saddam, Gadaffi, bin Laden, and the outbreak of peace, tolerance and democracy from the Sahel through to the Gobi desert?

          Or energy policy, with the abundance of reliable, cheap & clean energy

          Or industrial/commercial policy delivering real jobs?

          Or stable macroeconomic policy based on sensible interest rates?

          Or financial regulation that's given us a banking sector who do a fair days work for a fair days pay without fraud or mis-selling anywhere in sight?

          Or transport policy that's made getting round (insert almost any major US or UK city here) so quick and easy?

          Or homebuilding policy?, Or drugs policy? Or criminal justice policy?

          Aaaahhhh. I think I see why he's AC.

  7. x 7

    the commies are simply practicing for war. In the event of a shooting war with them, one of the first thing to go will be the cables: if they can force us to use satellite or radio comms, then interception becomes so much easier.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      I was going to say the same thing...

      But I think they're just putting remote-controlled explosive rings around the cables in the middle of the ocean, designed to never see the surface. Designed like a loose bead on a wire that remains at the lowest point. The only way to find them would be to surface the cables from both ends, meeting in the middle.

      This way, if they ever want to (or, based on their experiences at Chernobyl, fuck up royally) they could isolate the Americas in 30 seconds.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      the commies are simply practicing for war.

      That's what armies do when there isn't a war for them to join. Or at least it was what they did in the good old days.

      Of late, the game has changed and at the slightest threat of distant peace, the US and UK have made sure that they started or joined a new war even before the last was even remotely finished. I daresay that somewhere on Gumtree or Craigslist there's probably a small advert reading "Fading, overstretched global hegemon seeks medium sized unwinnable war in remote location. The ideal war will have no strategic relevance, require skills and equipment that the hegemon cannot offer, and ideally involve several different strata of religious, tribal, and racial conflict, a multiplicity of different armed actors, and the presence of proxy fighters for other nations. For preference the location will have some semblance of law, order and built infrastructure to begin with, in order that there are things to blow up."

      1. x 7

        "Of late, the game has changed and at the slightest threat of distant peace, the US and UK have made sure that they started or joined a new war even before the last was even remotely finished."

        FWIW, it was fairly clear we were going to war around 30 months before Gulf War I kicked off. How was that known? The UK MOD placed massive orders for desert - capable water and fuel hosepipes with a well-known UK fire-protection equipment supplier. You can't keep that kind of thing secret, employees talk.

      2. Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

        "To avert a revolution, we need a small victorious war."

        -- Vyacheslav Plehve

  8. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Probably really looking for alien underwater bases. Cos like , you know, they're real and staffed by the Americans as well. Where's my roll of Bacofoil?

    1. Primus Secundus Tertius

      @alien overlord

      More likely staffed by your fellow extra-terrestrials. Much easier to hide under the ocean than on land. Its time we asked the whales and squids if they have seen anything suspicious.

  9. hammarbtyp

    Why have your own network?

    Seems to me that if I was going to send secret traffic, it would make more sense to hide it with the facebook/twitter/porn downloads than have your own cable labelled "big secret network" and use strong encryption to guard the contents

    obligatory XKCD

    1. Stumpy

      Re: Why have your own network?

      What's to say they don't already piggyback on the public network traffic. Still, it would make more sense to have a cable labelled 'Big Secret Network' just to lead your enemies down the path you want them to take, and possibly even feed them the disinformation you desire...

      1. hammarbtyp

        Re: Why have your own network?

        Still, it would make more sense to have a cable labelled 'Big Secret Network' just to lead your enemies down the path you want them to take, and possibly even feed them the disinformation you desire...

        While it is conceivable, sounds an awfully expensive ruse, that you are not even sure the enemy has the technology to pick up on. Much cheaper to, say, leave a port open onto a fake server with such information

  10. naive

    war games

    Interesting concept. So theoretically, if Russia wants to implement a surprise attack on the West, it could start with destroying all cables connecting USA with Europe, and perhaps it even knows how to destroy some major communication satellites. Since the "West", at least what will be left of it after half of Africa is being welcomed by a half senile Merkel and other politicians without popular support, reduced its armies to a few music bands with a handful operational planes surviving from the cold war period, is low hanging fruit for any ambitious leader able to raise an army of around 1.000.000 and 1000 working planes. Dutch airforce does for instance have less then 30 operational F16's, which have never been upgraded since the 70's, the rest is used to cannibalize parts. Other countries are not much better.

    I hope governments or NATO does include the cable cutting scenario in its war games, so at least they are prepared for this.

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: war games

      "[...] is low hanging fruit for any ambitious leader able to raise an army of around 1.000.000 and 1000 working planes."

      Yes. And if Putin is willing to spend the extra cash for Amazon Prime he can have them delivered overnight!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: war games

      @naive

      You sound such a nice boy, care to come round for afternoon tea? RSVP by letter in case the Internet is cut.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: war games

      Wow, your username is appropriate....or maybe you should have chosen 'troll'.

      Do you really think that Russia could ever locate and cut ALL cables simultaneously, and destroy ALL communication and surveillance satellites simultaneously? That's what they'd have to do for a surprise attack. And hope no one in Europe owns a shortwave radio, and hope the US doesn't wonder "hey, we can't communicate with Europe at all, not even our bases, and can't even see what's going on" and maybe deploy everything we've got over there before that million man army reaches the German border?

      Though I'm pretty sure such an aggressive act would simply result in Europe nuking Moscow and various other locations, Russia responding and so forth. I guess the media's demonization of Putin I mentioned in a post above has already worked on weak minded fools like you, if you think this is something even worth considering as a possibility. Some things don't need 'war games' because once war escalates beyond a certain point it goes nuclear, and not even North Korea is dumb enough to escalate things to that point.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: war games

        "...no one in Europe owns a shortwave radio..."

        That's one of the key public service functions of Ham radio. Unless they send a man around with a gun, I'll have a trans-Atlantic link on the air pretty much no matter what. Solar panels, batteries, radios.

        And the $10 antenna won't be where I am, so bomb away. I've got lots of wire and coax.

      2. x 7

        Re: war games

        "Do you really think that Russia could ever locate and cut ALL cables simultaneously, and destroy ALL communication and surveillance satellites simultaneously? That's what they'd have to do for a surprise attack"

        Don't be daft, its nothing to do with surprise attack. Its attrition.

        Its quite simply just a way of degrading Nato's C3I capabilities, part of the same process by which they'd lob cruise missiles at satellite base stations, telephone microwave towers and major phone exchanges. They might go for the Fylingdales OTH radar as well, but that would probably cause Nato to launch a pre-emptive Trident nuclear strike. However, sites like Menwith Hill, Goonhilly, the BT Tower would be fair game. The commies could never hope to cut the USA off from Europe, but every bit of communication damage they can create would help their cause.

        Go back to Gulf War I - one of the first acts by our forces was for the SAS/SBS and their USA equivalents to go raiding in the desert digging up and cutting comms cables. They were doing that several days BEFORE the alliance launched the invasion

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: war games

          Then it is no longer a surprise attack, and the plan in Europe has always been the mutual assured destruction of nukes.

          The very idea that Putin would try to attack Europe and start bombing satellite stations in the UK is so ludicrous it doesn't even deserve the 30 seconds it is taking me to type this comment.

          1. x 7

            Re: war games

            "The very idea that Putin would try to attack Europe and start bombing satellite stations in the UK is so ludicrous it doesn't even deserve the 30 seconds it is taking me to type this comment."

            Taken as part of an all-out war, no its not ludicrous. The first act of any war is to degrade the opposing C3I.

            And soon Russia has to go to war. They have about 12 months currency reserves left.

  11. The H'wood Reporter
    Black Helicopters

    A Break, or is it a Tap?

    Any time a fibre cable is cut one should assume that a tap is being made. The most effective way to tap, is to cause an interruption somewhere, then install a tap while the line is known to be down and the looking for breaks is suspended. Even if someone is looking, wave amplifying taps may not cause enough disruption to be detected.

    One can also safely assume that any equipment from China or the USA has backdoors already mounted. The electronic war has long been launched, and it's aimed at you and I.

    1. martinusher Silver badge

      Re: A Break, or is it a Tap?

      The US has been tapping fiber cables for years so its not beyond the realm of possibilities that the Russians are either surveying cables looking for taps or figuring out how to attach some of their own.

  12. Lallabalalla
    Mushroom

    Lucky for them we can't afford an effective Navy

    But I'm sure having Trident will make them think twice. It's really deterring them so far.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Lucky for them we can't afford an effective Navy

      Don't forget that we can't afford an effective air force, either. So our airborne maritime patrol capabilities are now nil. I seem to recall all these savings were a "peace dividend". How will you be spending yours?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Lucky for them we can't afford an effective Navy

        Europe outsourced most of their military responsibilities to the US, because the NATO treaty means we'll come and fight a war of survival for you - provided you occasionally go and help fight us our undeclared wars outside of Europe, so we can claim an international coalition.

  13. Slx

    They really need to design in some cable security that makes tampering immediately obvious.

    Also, we should be surveying these cables regularly to ensure there's nothing being attached to them. Tapping might not be easy, but they could plant devices on then that could be designed to cut them at a later date with a remote command.

    There's nothing to say other countries with significant submarine abilities aren't doing similar.

    Scary just how physically vulnerable these networks are.

    The best solution is probably to invest in more and more fibre though to provide absolutely huge levels of redundancy.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not so easy to detect

      They'd have to have a ship trailing a camera go the entire length of the cable, moving the camera up and down as necessary for the terrain of the sea floor. I don't know what spies attach, but they could make it nearly invisible if they dug a small hole in the ocean floor and had it facing down. With a good repair job on the cable it might be impossible to detect unless they got within a few feet of it. Obviously whatever they install has to communicate the captured data out from the cable, but the cable that carries that information could be buried under the seafloor for a half mile before coming up and proceeding normally.

      As for tamper resistance, if they install 'pingable nodes' (for want of a better term, but I imagine most Reg readers get my gist) every mile along the cable they could ping it from both ends and unless both cuts were in the same one mile segment they could tell there were two cuts. Though maybe if cut carefully even this could be bypassed. Or maybe it would add a lot of cost to the cable.

  14. Cuddles

    Pacific?

    "Russia is raising fears of cable cuts in the Pacific... one such sortie seemed to come close to the route from the East Coast to Guantánamo Bay"

    I'm no geography expert, but I could have sworn that Cuba and the east coast of the USA are not, in fact, in the Pacific.

    1. Bad Beaver

      Re: Pacific?

      Minor details! They can prolly teleport their subs to wherever they wish. Russians! Russians everywhere!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Pacific?

        Its 1963 all over again, we'll do another blockade and hope the X Men help us out of a jam like they did last time.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yet another Russki Sub-Scare? Yawn.

    'tis probably the same kind of sub that keeps surfacing without proof in Swedish waters all the times. Made of 100% propaganda, it is invisible to anyone but the most paranoid warmongers.

    While not a particular fan of Mr. Putin, I'd still guess Russian forces must be doing a scary good job in Syria for SOURCES WHO CANNOT BE NAMED to be in such jitters about their global activity. So much money invested in IS, all going to waste in so little time. It's a hard, hard life.

  16. casaloco

    Russian subs prowling "near submarine cables" - or "Underwater" as it used to be know.

  17. Kev99 Silver badge

    Note: What are undersea cables made of? Copper wires surrounded by multiple layers of armor and waterproofing. So why does we get molasses speeds in the US when the data rushes along copper from Blighty and other countries?

  18. dmacleo

    iirc the sosus line (like GIUK gap) driven off these cables.

    man been years since I had to think about that stuff.

    I may be worng though, please correct me if so.

    edit: corrected GIUK had letters reversed

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ok... You got my attention

    I'm a bit concerned, too.

    So what are you selling?

  20. x 7

    the hot money has it that the commies are actually building their own SOSUS lines near western port entrances - e.g. the mouth of the Clyde. They'll be able to monitor our subariness leaving port

    with the scrapping of the Nimrods, and the run down of the Sea King sub hunter fleet, we now have NOTHING to stop them. There aren't enough Merlins to protect our ships and ports - and most of the Merlins are required for other duties anyway.

    The situation is soon approaching where the commie attack subs will be able to monitor and constantly threaten OUR fleet: the reverse of whats been happening for the last 50 years

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let's hire some thugs...

    .. That watch these cables while we watch porn.

    If we get rid of net neutrality big companies could just pay for these thugs to intimidate those russian subs.

    In return, we could prioritize data traffic for those large companies. After all they pay the thugs.

    Faster data transfer will give them a competitive adavantage and they can stay in power.

    Good idea!

    1. x 7

      Re: Let's hire some thugs...

      we've got the thugs - they're called the Royal Navy. We just need to give them enough ships and aircraft to do the job. We now have NO realistic airborne attack capability against surface ships (theres a complete absence of air to surface missiles, and conventional bombing of ships isn't taught by the RAF), and minimal against submarines (just a handful of Merlins which are probably in use elsewhere).

  22. Asterix the Gaul

    I do not believe this story at all in any way.

    In my honest opinion, it's just a continuation of the lies eminating from the White House where there is an elected liar engaged in a personal propaganda war against Russia's President PUTIN.

    The latest propaganda is that Mr PUTIN is "corrupt",coming from the capital of the world's most corrupt nation where Wall Street & it's banks control the fiat currency that runs that economy,leaves me ROFL.

    You couldn't make this one up,if you think Mr PUTIN is 'corrupt', try focusing on the American banks bankrolling the Ukraine, a country so corrupt that Mr PUTIN looks saintly by comparison to the Ukraine or America.

    To express horror at Russia being involved in any 'interference' with undersea optical cables is equally derisable & hypocritical.

    NSA\GCHQ continuously use 'injection' methods to collect data from ISP's through which your internet activity is purloined by these oxygen thieves.

    1. x 7

      "an elected liar engaged in a personal propaganda war "

      against an unelected liar fraud and thief currently in control in the Kremlin

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