'Seabed is a battlefield': Australia moves to guard undersea cables

Australia, the United States and Britain are pushing to protect vital undersea cables and pipelines as they face growing sabotage threats.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said in a speech at a Singapore summit last weekend the “seabed is a battlefield”, while urging tougher action against China and Russia, suspected of cutting undersea cabling.

Defence ministers from the three AUKUS nations have unveiled steps to protect the vital infrastructure which carry massive amounts of data across the globe.

“Over the past 18 months we have witnessed a series of attacks against subsea critical infrastructure at a scale and frequency that is historically unprecedented,” he said.

“This is not speculation. This is a documented pattern of behaviour. And we must reckon with it honestly.”

Marles said the incidents included cables being damaged in the Taiwan Straits and the Baltic Sea, which have been attributed to China and Russia, respectively.

He also said Australia was particularly vulnerable, with 99 per cent of the country’s internet traffic flowing through 15 undersea cables.

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“Our financial systems, our health systems, our communications systems, our intelligence partnerships, our ability to operate as a modern economy and a functioning state; all of it is critically dependent on infrastructure that is exposed ... can be cut with an anchor in the middle of the night,” Marles said.

There are also concerns Iran may target fibre-optic cabling beneath the Strait of Hormuz in its conflict with the US.

The network of cables and pipelines carry data for e-commerce, banking and cloud services.

To respond to the threat, the AUKUS allies will develop undersea vehicle (UUV) technology, with a delivery date expected for next year.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the vehicles would be highly adaptable and “support undersea operations and maintain our collective advantage in the maritime domain”.

The aim is to increase the ability of Australia, the US and Britain to respond to threats, including those targeting underwater cables and pipelines, UK Defence Secretary John Healy said.