The United Kingdom, United States and Australia announced Saturday a joint initiative under the AUKUS trilateral alliance to develop and deploy advanced underwater drone technology by 2027, targeting protection of critical subsea cables amid what officials called an “historically unprecedented” wave of attacks.
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles warned at Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogue that undersea cables are being severed at record rates. He called them “the arteries of modern civilisation,” a vulnerability made stark by the fact that 99% of Australia’s internet traffic flows through just 15 subsea cables.
‘The Seabed Is A Battlefield’
Marles pointed to a documented pattern of incidents over the past 18 months, including five cable cuts in the Taiwan Strait attributed to China and three in the Baltic Sea alleged to involve Russia, asking whether nations were “testing our response times, testing our attribution thresholds and testing our political will to respond.”
He also warned that so-called “shadow fleet” vessels were compounding the threat, saying they facilitate sanctions evasion and sustain Russia’s war in Europe. “The seabed is becoming a battlefield. The shadow fleet is becoming a weapon,” Marles said.
Australia To Buy Three Virginia-Class Submarines
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the underwater drone program the first “signature project” under AUKUS Pillar Two, delivering “highly adaptable multi-mission payloads” for undersea operations.
In the same announcement, Australia confirmed it will purchase three secondhand Virginia-class submarines from the U.S. to simplify supply chain management and maximize cost efficiencies.
