Suspected of having cut the Arelion and C-Lion1 submarine telecommunications cables, the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng has been immobilized for a month now in the Kattegat Strait, on the edge of Danish territorial waters. [soit à un peu plus de 12 nautiques de la côte]while being closely monitored by Danish and German ships.
One of the characteristics of a so-called “hybrid” operation is that it is difficult to determine its sponsors. However, as the Wall Street Journal recently reported, Western intelligence services believe that the crew of the Yi Peng 3 was “incited” by Russia to damage these submarine cables. But we still need to be able to prove it… especially since for Moscow, such suspicions are “laughable” and “absurd”.
The fact remains that the behavior of the Chinese cargo ship is suspicious. Reviewing your AIS data [Système d’identification automatique] thus revealed that, on November 7, it had slowed down before stopping while it was sailing above three submarine cables, in the Cattegat Strait sector.
The Danish news channel TV2 requested the services of the company BluEye Robotics to check the condition of these cables. So she sent an underwater robot there [ROV pour Remotely operated underwater vehicle]. Result ? A long trail, with a “deep imprint”, visibly left by an anchor, was spotted. And it corresponds to the trajectory of the Yi Peng 3 as it was reconstructed by the AIS data. And this is precisely the procedure that was followed to cut, two weeks later, the Arelion and C-Lion1 cables.
For the moment, Sweden, in charge of the investigation, is not authorized to board the Yi Peng 3, due to lack of agreement from its flag state, in this case China. However, on December 19, Swedish police officers were invited by “representatives of the Chinese authorities” to board… but only as observers.
In any case, the protection of the maritime infrastructures of the countries of the European Union [UE] and/or NATO is now a priority, especially as they are likely to be the subject of increasingly frequent “hybrid” attacks. Hence the development of new capabilities, within the framework of projects financed by the European Defense Fund [FED]such as “SEACURE” [SEabed and Anti-submarine warfare Capability through Unmanned featuRe for Europe].
Taking over from SEANICE [AntiSubmarine warfare European Autonomous Networked Innovative and Collaborative Environment]financed to the tune of 10 million euros by the European Defense Industrial Development Program [PEDID / EDIDP]SEACURE aims to provide participating European countries with “sovereign capabilities in the field of anti-submarine warfare and seabed warfare”.
Like that of its predecessor, the coordination of this project was entrusted to the French group Thales. Expected to last 45 months and with a budget of 44 million euros, it will mobilize no less than 35 industrialists and research centers from 13 EU Member States, including France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands. For the record, Austria, via the “drone operator” Schiebel, is participating… even though this country has no access to the sea.
Among the manufacturers involved are, in addition to the various Thales subsidiaries, Naval Group, Exail Robotics, RTSYS, Alseamar, Leonardo, Drass, Fincantieri, Atlas Elektronik and ESG Elektroniksystem- Und Logistik.
“Various recent events are leading to the acceleration of plans within NATO and European nations to protect maritime infrastructure of national interest. These plans cover new theaters which require capabilities and concepts of operation that are also new,” explains Thales, via a press release published on December 19.
Also, continues the industrialist, “SEACURE’s main objective is to develop and demonstrate at sea, by 2028, an integrated system of systems capable of executing joint autonomous anti-submarine warfare operations and on seabed, in order to protect crucial maritime infrastructure for countries. And to specify: “This initiative emphasizes the capabilities of detection, classification, identification and tracking of underwater threats in the most difficult conditions, using aerial, surface and underwater drones “.
Finally, SEACURE “will provide a versatile defense system to carry out such operations, with a higher level of autonomy, being based on an open, agile, modular and scalable system of systems architecture. This interoperable system will be perfectly suited to collaborative combat.”
It remains to be seen what such a “system of systems” will be able to do against a ship that has voluntarily left its anchor lying near submarine cables… However, maritime infrastructures are not limited to the latter and SEACURE developments will open up other ways.
Indeed, according to the project sheet published by the European Commission, it is a question of a “concept of engagement against hostile intruders using anti-torpedo torpedoes”. Which could have application to other aspects of naval combat.
Photo: European Defense Agency
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