Page 14: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2022)

EYE ON THE NAVY time, wireless communications were also established across Tong in the South Paci? c has just one that ties into a wider the Atlantic, and both cable and wireless technologies would network at Fiji, 827 kilometers away. Tonga’s sole subsea continue to advance. communications cable was knocked out by the January erup-

The ? rst undersea telephone cables were laid in 1955, con- tion of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano.

necting continents with voice communications. Now, twisted However, while there have been seismic activity, tsunamis copper wire has been replaced by ? ber optic lines. Bandwidth and mudslides compromising lines, and even reports of sharks has increased exponentially. trying to get a charge out of biting cables, the instances of fail-

Today’s ? nancial transactions ? y between markets under the ure are few, and almost always the fault of shipping or ? shing. sea. If you travel abroad and use your ATM to get a little Fixing a broken cable can be problematic, and costly, depend- spending money, you are connected to your bank in seconds, ing on the distance from land and depth of water, and required and money miraculously comes out of the wall, thanks to the specialized ships and equipment.

subsea lines. Each year technology takes cable construction and capacity

The cables that cross the seas are laid on a sea? oor that is still to new heights, or perhaps depths. Although the cables can be a mysterious place. Much is still unknown about the bottom quite deep, and sometimes buried, their positions are known, of the ocean. Today, sheathed ? ber-optic submarine cables are and they are accessible with specialized ships, underwater put in place by specialized ships between shore stations, and vehicles and equipment. They may be relatively free from connected to the land-based communications network. While jamming like terrestrial or space-based communications are, they are insulated and protected, the cables are still vulnerable subsea cables are subject to tampering.

to natural threats and manmade activity such as ? shing gear or Since so much traf? c is carried on these cables, and we rely dragging ship anchors. on that data so much, the potential for an adversary to com-

Dependence on the underwater network is relative. There promise the cable network by cutting or tapping the lines is are multiple cables that cross the Atlantic. The Kingdom of very real.

USNS Zeus is the only active cable laying/repair ship in the U.S. Navy.

Military Sealift Command photo 14 March/April 2022

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