Severed

The attacks on the Nordstream pipelines at the latest have highlighted the vulnerability of underwater infrastructure. The West must therefore invest more in protecting and securing these vital connections.

At a time of geopolitical tensions with attacks on critical underwater infrastructure, seabed warfare has become highly topical. It aims to protect critical underwater infrastructure such as submarine cables, pipelines, telephone and internet lines, power lines and oil rigs - an enormous challenge given the vast sea areas and laying depths. Until the blowing up of the Nordstream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in 2022, the damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline and the disruption of a data cable between Estonia and Finland in 2023, little thought had been given to hybrid sabotage attacks on the seabed. However, at the Berlin Security Conference in November 2022, Germany and Norway asked NATO to