NATO commander warns critical undersea cables and pipes ‘under threat’ from Russia and other foes

Important deep sea cables and pipelines are at risk, warns NATO’s Allied Maritime Command’s deputy commander Vice Adm. Didier Maleterre.

“It’s a security issue for nearly 1 billion NATO-nation civilians. We need to be protected and well supplied by our vital undersea infrastructures,” Maleterre told the Guardian on April 16.

NATO allies have detected several instances of suspicious activity around underwater infrastructure within the past few years and the commander noted that the Russians have “developed a lot of hybrid warfare under the sea to disrupt the European economy, through cables, internet cables, pipelines.”

Maleterre said that some of Russia’s nuclear-powered submarines were built for hybrid warfare purposes, as may have been the case with a Russian sub that caught fire a few years ago. The commander’s concerns come amid rising tensions between NATO.

Read more: Business Insider