NATO Steps Up Response To ‘Clear And Present’ Undersea Infrastructure Risk
NATO’s newly established Critical Undersea Infrastructure Co-ordination Cell is stepping up the alliance’s deterrence and response capability to a ‘clear and present’ risk to such infrastructure, senior NATO officials told a media briefing in early May.
Dr Lee Willett 16 May 2023
“Russia is actively mapping allied critical infrastructure both on land and on the seabed,”
The September 2022 Baltic Sea Nordstream gas pipeline ruptures – incidents NATO attributed to sabotage – shone political and public spotlights on the long-understood (in the naval world) risk to undersea infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines and data and power cables. In response to the Nordstream incidents, NATO stood up its new cell.
“We understand … the clear and present danger our critical undersea infrastructure faces,” Hans-Werner Wiermann, the cell’s head (and a retired German Army Lieutenant General, whose last military post was as Director General of NATO’s International Military Staff), told the briefing. “What is clear is that increasing the security of [this] infrastructure underpins NATO’s deterrence and defence – its core task – and the security and prosperity of our societies. The threat is real, and NATO is stepping up.”
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2023/05/nato-steps-up-response-to-clear-and-present-undersea-infrastructure-risk/
