Norway and Britain expose secret Russian submarine drill targeting undersea cables

In April, Norway and the United Kingdom announced they had intercepted a clandestine Russian submarine operation in the Arctic near Svalbard. Follow-up intelligence, cited by two unnamed Western officials, indicates that the Russian attack submarine and two GUGI-operated special subs were conducting drills with a hidden technology designed to disable undersea cables. The exercise was aborted after NATO forces detected and confronted the vessels, preventing any actual damage to the fiber-optic lines that run between Svalbard and mainland Norway at depths of up to 2,700 metres and support the SvalSat satellite ground station.

Norwegian and British authorities reportedly raised the findings directly with Moscow to demonstrate Western awareness of the new capability. The cables are critical for transmitting large volumes of data. Russia’s defence ministry has not commented, and the Kremlin continues to deny any sabotage plans against NATO members.