NATO on damaged cable – ships and aircraft responded
NATO Maritime Command (MARCOM) spokesman Arlo Abrahamson told PAP that NATO ships and aircraft had ‘responded’ following damage to a submarine cable in the Baltic Sea. ‘We are working closely with allies in the region,’ he – he added.
MARCOM is the central command for all NATO naval forces, located in Northwood, UK.
NATO Allied Command (ACO), which is responsible for the planning and execution of all Alliance operations, is currently conducting Operation Baltic Sentry (‘Baltic Guard’) in the Baltic Sea to deter any attempt to damage undersea critical infrastructure. This is in response to damage to undersea cables connecting Estonia and Finland on 25 December.
– ‘Baltic Sentry will provide targeted deterrence throughout the Baltic Sea and will counter acts of destabilisation such as those observed last month,’ the NATO Commander-in-Chief in Europe, US Army General Christopher G. Cavoli, said recently.
Although Baltic Sentry, is a new initiative, NATO forces maintain a permanent presence in the Baltic Sea, conducting regular patrols and joint exercises. Allied warships, submarines and aircraft, supported by advanced maritime surveillance technology, monitor waters throughout the region.
NATO countries are increasingly threatened by hybrid attacks from Russia, including acts of sabotage such as the destruction of underwater cables and pipelines. The Alliance is currently working on a new strategy to deal with this challenge.
There is a realisation at NATO Headquarters in Brussels and in Allied capitals that a particular challenge is the protection of critical infrastructure on the sea and ocean floor.
– NATO countries depend on an extensive network of oil and gas pipes and cables. There is an asymmetry here, because Russia is not. Moscow has for decades been developing a so-called underwater research programme, a very well-funded, technologically advanced programme which, although presented as research, was in fact launched to map NATO’s underwater infrastructure, a senior NATO official told a group of journalists in Brussels in December.
As part of this programme, the Russians have specialised ships, submarines and underwater drones with which they can cut cables or place an explosive charge near a pipeline. That is why NATO has established a new naval command in the UK to better protect underwater cables and pipelines.
The damage to the fibre-optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was reported by Latvian media on Sunday morning, adding that the failure had no major impact on data transmission. Latvian and Swedish authorities have launched investigations into the matter.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the owner of Bulgarian shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgare admitted that the Bulgarian-owned Vezhen, a Maltese-flagged vessel, may have been responsible for the cable damage. Due to strong winds, the vessel allegedly dropped its anchor, which may have damaged the cable. The Bulgarians assured that the malfunction was not due to ‘malicious intent’.
As the Swedish newspaper Expressen reported on Monday morning, the Vezhen, which was standing at anchor near Karlskrona, had already been seized by Swedish authorities on Saturday evening. Pictures published by the newspaper show that the vessel has one of its anchors damaged. The bulk carrier was due to sail from a Russian port.
Source: PortalMorski.pl
