UK Edition
Russia has ability to 'disrupt' Britain's internet access, head of Armed Forces warns
Russia poses a threat to Britain's internet access and trade because under-sea communication cables are vulnerable to the country's navy, the head of the Armed Forces has warned.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach said the Russian's 'modernised' navy had the ability to disrupt the transcontinental cables and that the UK had to bolster its naval forces to counter the threat.
His warning comes amid a row over defence spending and sources have pointed out that the UK currently has had no submarine-hunting maritime patrol aircraft since 2010 while ships and submarines which could also protect the cables have fallen too.
The Chief of the Defence Staff gave the speech only days after a think tank said an attack on the cables would deal a “crippling blow” to security and commerce and the “threat is nothing short of existential”.
A former head of the Navy on Thursday said Britain was unable to fully protect the fibre optic cables carrying the digital lifeblood of the internet, because its anti-submarine warfare forces had been neglected.
Sir Stuart’s warning comes as the Ministry of Defence is lobbying the Treasury for more money, which it says is needed to stave off defence cuts.
He told the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) that the modernisation of the Russian fleet was forcing Nato to do more to protect sea lines of communication.
Delivering his annual Christmas lecture, he said: “There is a new risk to our way of life which is the vulnerability of the cables that crisscross the seas. Imagine a scenario where those cables are cut or disrupted which would immediately and potentially catastrophically affect both our economy and other ways of living.
“Therefore we must continue to develop our maritime forces, with our allies, to match Russian fleet modernisation.”
Around 97 per cent of global communications are transmitted through the cables laid on the sea bed, but they are “uniquely vulnerable” to sabotage, according to a Policy Exchange report written by Rishi Sunak MP.
The cables form the main arteries of the internet and transmit an estimated £7 trillion in daily financial transactions. Some of the busiest connections cross the Atlantic and come ashore at remote locations in the UK.
But the cables often have “minimal protection” and are at increasing risk from Russian naval activity or terrorism, according to the report.
Both sides tried to monitor and tap into undersea cables during the Cold War, using specialist submarines and ships.
Cables have again become an area of Russian focus in recent years, Lord West of Spithead said, but defence cuts had left Britain lacking the forces to fully protect them.
He said: “The bottom line is it will need extra resources put in there. It’s something that we have been worried about for some time.
“We were aware of the Soviet focus on it and Russia has become more into it recently.
“We can do some things about it, but not enough because our anti-submarine warfare capability has been seriously neglected.
“The anti-submarine warfare package has been underfunded and has not been looked after well enough.”
Britain has been without its own submarine-hunting maritime patrol aircraft since 2010 and the first P-8 Poseidon patrol planes to fill the gap are not due to arrive until 2019.
Numbers of frigates have fallen from 38 in 1990 to 13, while numbers of attack submarines have fallen from 25 in 1990 to seven now.
US naval commanders have warned of increasing Russian activity along the cable routes, raising fears Moscow could be looking for places where the data pipelines could be cut or damaged.
While the greatest threat is believed to come from submarines, surface ships are also able to find and interfere with cables.
Russia is building a new series of submarine-equipped, military “deep sea research” ships that are believed to be spying on the worldwide grid of cables.
One of the vessels, Yantar, was two years ago seen off the coast of Cuba close to where cables come ashore at Guantanamo Bay.
The vessel has also reportedly been active in the Black Sea and Mediterranean along cable routes.
Adml James Stavridis, the former Nato Supreme Allied Commander, said last week that the backbone of the world’s economy “is not satellites in the sky, but pipes on the ocean floor”.
He said: “We have allowed this vital infrastructure to grow increasingly vulnerable and this should worry us all.”
Senior commanders believe the internet is now so critical to commerce and daily life that more must be done to build the resilience of the system, so it can survive attacks and disruption.
Sir Stuart, who is due to soon leave his post and become chair of Nato’s military committee used his speech to warn the risks faced by the military alliance were rising.
He called on the defence establishment to become more innovative to deal with rising threats such as sophisticated air defence systems and electronic warfare.