Britain, Norway and the United States stopped Russian vessels from completing an undersea exercise near Svalbard this spring after detecting an operation intended to test technology for disabling critical subsea cables, according to two Western officials cited by Reuters. The vessels later left the area, and no cables were damaged.
The operation was conducted by Russia’s Main Directorate for Deep-Sea Research, known as GUGI, which used deep-sea submersibles to simulate deploying the destructive capability. The officials said the exercise focused on how the technology could be used during a conflict with NATO. They declined to describe how the system works.
A joint British, Norwegian and U.S. operation tracked and confronted the Russian vessels in Arctic waters near the remote Svalbard archipelago. British and Norwegian officials then presented their findings to Moscow, signaling that they had identified both the technology and its intended use. The officials said the disclosure was intended in part to make Russia hesitate before using the capability.
The exercise took place near two 1,400-kilometer fiber-optic cables linking Svalbard with mainland Norway. The cables reach depths of as much as 2,700 meters and carry satellite data from SvalSat, described by Reuters as the world’s largest satellite ground station and part of NASA’s Near Space Network. Subsea cables also carry internet traffic and support financial transactions, making them important infrastructure for governments and economies.
The newly disclosed details expand on statements Britain and Norway made in April about covert Russian activity in and near their waters linked to GUGI. Britain’s Defence Ministry pointed to those statements, while Washington and London have imposed sanctions on the directorate.
Norwegian Defence Minister Tore Sandvik said the joint operation showed that Russia could not operate covertly without detection. “We have made it unequivocally clear to Russian authorities that any attempt to target our critical infrastructure will be detected and met with consequences,” Sandvik said in a statement cited by Reuters. He added that escalation in the High North served no one’s interests.
The encounter has heightened concern among Western officials about the vulnerability of undersea infrastructure and the possibility that cable disruption could form part of a broader confrontation between Russia and NATO. Three U.S. officials said some American analysts are increasingly concerned that Moscow could test NATO’s mutual-defense commitment, known as Article 5. The officials who described the Svalbard operation said undersea cables could be a critical target in such a conflict.
The Arctic location is also strategically significant because the waters between southern Svalbard and mainland Norway form a route toward the Atlantic for Russian nuclear submarines based on the Kola Peninsula. The area, known as the Bear Gap, is roughly 400 miles wide. Britain said it deployed forces to nearby Jan Mayen in August with Norwegian and U.S. allies for an exercise demonstrating joint operations in the High North.
The Svalbard operation shows how efforts to protect subsea infrastructure are extending beyond monitoring damaged cables after an incident. In this case, allied forces intervened while Russian vessels were conducting a test, before any cable was harmed. The officials said the Russian exercise was intended to simulate sabotage capability rather than carry out an attack.