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posted by janrinok on Thursday November 05 2015, @06:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the save-the-pron! dept.

Inside the Pentagon and the nation's spy agencies, the assessments of Russia's growing naval activities are highly classified and not publicly discussed in detail. American officials are secretive about what they are doing both to monitor the activity and to find ways to recover quickly if cables are cut. But more than a dozen officials confirmed in broad terms that it had become the source of significant attention in the Pentagon.

"I'm worried every day about what the Russians may be doing," said Rear Adm. Frederick J. Roegge, commander of the Navy's submarine fleet in the Pacific, who would not answer questions about possible Russian plans for cutting the undersea cables.

Cmdr. William Marks, a Navy spokesman in Washington, said: "It would be a concern to hear any country was tampering with communication cables; however, due to the classified nature of submarine operations, we do not discuss specifics."

In private, however, commanders and intelligence officials are far more direct. They report that from the North Sea to Northeast Asia and even in waters closer to American shores, they are monitoring significantly increased Russian activity along the known routes of the cables, which carry the lifeblood of global electronic communications and commerce.

Just last month, the Russian spy ship Yantar, equipped with two self-propelled deep-sea submersible craft, cruised slowly off the East Coast of the United States on its way to Cuba — where one major cable lands near the American naval station at Guantánamo Bay. It was monitored constantly by American spy satellites, ships and planes. Navy officials said the Yantar and the submersible vehicles it can drop off its decks have the capability to cut cables miles down in the sea.

See also a BBC story here.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @10:20PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @10:20PM (#259128)

    [quote]From your linked source, the $1,000,000 washer was, in fact, a crime. One which was caught and punished by a fine (essentially for the money back) and an additional 20 years in prison.[/quote]
    Yeah, it's fixed now. Expect to see the US military plummet and its effectiveness skyrocket!