The Royal Navy has been commissioned by the British Government to build a naval vessel to protect submarine internet and communication cables. According to the British, the community is in dire need of protecting this vital infrastructure as it is being sabotaged by enemy submarines.
This multi-roll ocean surveillance ship with about fifteen men is expected to be anchored in British and international waters by 2024. Sensors and underwater drones will be patrolled for security craft to monitor sea cables.
Says Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace Against the BBC Submarine cables are “essential for the global economy and intergovernmental communication.” NATO, a member of the United Kingdom, has been concerned for years about the security of Internet cables, NOS writes in a statement, especially in the North Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Western Europe. In 2017, a U.S. Navy commander talked about unprecedented Russian action near those cables.
Major infrastructure
Submarine cables are an important link in intercontinental Internet transport. Such cable consists of glass fibers embedded in a petroleum gel surrounded by various layers (from inside to outside): copper or aluminum pipe, polycarbonate, aluminum, steel cables, mylar and polyethylene.
The first submarine cables for telecommunications purposes came to light in the mid-nineteenth century. For example, in 1850, brothers Jacob and John Watkins Brett of the Anglo-French Telegraph Company laid the first submarine cable at the bottom of the channel. Eight years later, a usable cable lay at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
According to An overview from the BBC As of 2017, there are approximately 430 submarines worldwide, totaling 683,508 miles (1.1 million km). The Egyptian port of Alexandria will become very congested: there, ship anchors usually damage internet cables, resulting in poor internet connectivity between Europe, Africa and Asia.
