The spotlight on critical undersea security cables around the UK and Atlantic was underlined recently with the visit of the USNS Zeus to Plymouth.
The US vessel is the first cable ship specifically built and hardly ever seen up close , and comes with the recent announcement that the Royal Navy is to build a new surveillance ship to protect Britain’s critical undersea cables.
The Defence secretary Ben Wallace told parliament ’the lights could go out’ if national infrastruture was lost, and the cables were ‘incredibly important’.
Hundreds of thousands of miles of undersea cables circle the UK and across the globe, providing internet and communications links between nations and continents.
The USNS Zeus visiting Plymouth recently
Image Kevin Kelway (Westward Shipping News).
