German technology company AP Sensing has developed technology that allows you to monitor what is happening near underwater fiber optic cables and “hear” enemy underwater drones or vessels dragging their anchors along the seabed.
German technology company AP Sensing has developed technology that allows you to monitor what is happening near underwater fiber optic cables and “hear” enemy underwater drones or vessels dragging their anchors along the seabed.
AP Sensing's system was tested last year. The company used ships, drones and divers with sea scooters to find out how accurately its software could detect and identify the presence of ships or drones, writes the BBC.
As pulses of light travel along a fiber optic strand, tiny reflections sometimes bounce back along the line. These reflections are affected by factors such as temperature, vibration, or physical obstructions in the cable itself. By observing the temperature change along a section of buried cable, you can tell which section, for example, is left unburied.
This technology can even determine the approximate size of a vessel passing over an undersea cable, as well as its location and, in some circumstances, its direction of travel. This can be linked to satellite imagery or even the Automatic Identification System (AIS) records that most vessels transmit at any given time.
AP Sensing is not the only company developing fiber-optic listening technology.
Dutch company Optics11 will soon begin testing a cable monitoring system on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The technology could even be used on military submarines, the company says.
And while cable sensing technology can be useful, its effectiveness in preventing damage depends on how quickly the Coast Guard or military patrols can receive notification of potential sabotage and respond.
As a reminder, on the morning of January 26, an underwater fiber-optic cable was damaged in the Baltic Sea. Swedish authorities have launched an investigation and detained the vessel Vezhen , which is suspected of involvement in the sabotage.
Cases of damage to submarine cables have been recorded in recent months between Lithuania and Sweden, Germany and Finland, and Estonia and Finland. However, American and European intelligence agencies believe that the ruptures of submarine cables in the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland were caused by maritime accidents , not by Russian sabotage.
Cable failures between countries have also occurred on land. For example, in December, a Global Connect internet cable was damaged between Finland and Sweden.
As of 2024, there are 574 operating and planned submarine telecommunications cables in the world, on which global access to the Internet and the transmission of traffic between continents depend.
