Submarine Cable Resilience

Submarine cables, which carry 99% of intercontinental telecommunications data across an estimated 1.5 million kilometers globally, face increasing vulnerability to damage from ship anchors, fishing equipment, geological events, and deliberate attacks. Recent incidents highlight the severity of this threat, with cables in the Taiwan Strait experiencing 27 cuts between 2018-2022 and the Baltic Sea suffering 11 disruptions since 2023. While armored cable jackets protect vulnerable shallow-water segments, deep-sea cables remain largely unprotected, and satellite systems cannot adequately replace damaged submarine cable infrastructure, potentially causing severe global communication disruptions.