- China has successfully tested a new submarine cable cutting vessel
- The vessel uses a self-contained electrohydrostatic actuator.
- While designed for civilian purposes, the ship has military applications.
China has successfully completed the first test of a new deep-sea vessel that is capable of cutting underwater cables at a depth of 3,500 meters (11,483 feet).
a report of SCMP claims that the new research vessel “Haiyang Dizhi 2” has reportedly completed sea trials of a new “deep-sea electrohydrostatic actuator.”
The test “bridged the ‘last mile’ from deep-sea equipment development to engineering application,” the official China Science Daily reported.
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A deep sea cable cutter can cut steel
Rather than relying on a connection to a surface vessel to provide the external oil tubing used by the hydraulic mechanisms, the deepwater electrohydrostatic actuator is a self-contained unit that houses the hydraulic system, electric motor and controls.
The vessel is touted to be designed for deep-sea engineering purposes. But like many technologies designed for civilian applications, the vessel also has the potential to be used to sabotage undersea cables from nations China considers hostile, such as the United States.
Underwater cables are the arteries of modern digital life, carrying more than 95% of all international Internet traffic and, with it, much of the data on which our businesses and economies depend. They are usually buried just below the sea floor at a depth of around 2,000 meters (6,561 ft), but can be placed deeper, particularly in large expanses of ocean.
Most submarine cables use a layered protective sheath of steel, rubber and polymer, arranged to provide protection not only against the crushing pressures on the ocean floor, but also against the anchors of ships, bottom trawling fishing vessels and underwater vessels such as these.
This is not the first deep-sea cable cutter that China has revealed. The China Ship Scientific Research Center (CSSRC) and the State Key Laboratory of Manned Deep-Sea Vehicles have also developed a ship that uses a diamond-coated grinding wheel to cut underwater cables at depths of 4,000 meters (13,123 feet).
Underwater cables have become lucrative targets for espionage and disruption. In late 2024, two undersea cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged and Finnish authorities seized a ship believed to belong to the Russian “shadow fleet” as responsible. The UK government recently revealed that Russia launched underwater sabotage vessels in UK waters with the intention of attacking undersea cables in the North Sea.
Plans to lay cables in the Red Sea as part of projects such as Meta’s 2Africa Pearls project have been delayed or canceled due to hostilities between the United States and Iran.
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