Britain, Norway and the United States disrupted a Russian undersea exercise near Svalbard this spring after tracking and confronting vessels linked to Moscow’s Main Directorate for Deep-Sea Research, known as GUGI. The Russian vessels were training with deep-sea submersibles to simulate deployment of a destructive capability against subsea cables, according to Defense News, citing two Western officials.
The allied operation prevented the vessels from completing the exercise, and they later left the area. The officials said Russia did not damage any cables. They described the activity as a simulation intended to prepare for possible use during a conflict with NATO, while declining to explain how the technology works.
The operation took place near the remote Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, where two 1,400-kilometer fiber-optic cables connect the territory to mainland Norway. The cables reach depths of up to 2,700 meters and carry satellite data from the SvalSat ground station, described in the report as the world’s largest satellite ground station and part of NASA’s Near Space Network.
The discovery adds detail to disclosures by Britain and Norway in April that they had identified covert Russian activity in Arctic waters involving GUGI. The latest account identifies the location of the exercise and says U.S. forces participated in the maritime response. British and Norwegian officials also presented their findings to Moscow, the two Western officials said, in an effort to signal that the technology had been detected.
Norwegian Defence Minister Tore Sandvik said the joint operation had shown Russia that it could not operate covertly. “Any attempt to target our critical infrastructure will be detected and met with consequences,” he said in a statement cited by the report, while warning against an escalation in the High North.
NATO referred requests for comment to Norwegian and British authorities. Britain’s Defence Ministry pointed to April 9 statements acknowledging attempted covert activities by GUGI in and near Norwegian and British waters. Washington and London have imposed sanctions on the directorate. Russia’s Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment, while the Kremlin has denied conducting sabotage operations in NATO countries or planning a confrontation with the alliance.
The episode comes as Western officials warn that subsea infrastructure could become a target in a broader confrontation. Undersea cables, often no thicker than a garden hose and laid on or below the seabed, support internet connectivity and financial transactions. U.S. intelligence analysts cited in the report are increasingly concerned that Russia could test NATO’s mutual-defense commitment, known as Article 5, with cable disruption forming part of such an effort.
The area also has military significance. The Bear Gap, the roughly 400-mile stretch of water between southern Svalbard and mainland Norway, lies along a route toward the Atlantic for Russian nuclear submarines based on the Kola Peninsula. Britain said it deployed forces to Jan Mayen in August with Norwegian and U.S. partners for an exercise intended to demonstrate NATO’s ability to operate jointly in the High North. Norway plans to complete a new fiber-optic cable linking Svalbard and Jan Mayen to the mainland by 2028.