The US, UK and Australia say they will develop underwater drone technology to protect undersea cables and boost defence, under their military alliance known as Aukus. The uncrewed undersea vehicle (UUV) technology is expected to be ready by next year. While the project's total cost was not stated, British defence secretary John Healey said the UK would contribute £150m ($201m). The announcement, made by the countries' defence ministers at a security summit in Singapore, follows claims of slow progress in Aukus's projects. Acknowledging the criticism, Healey said for too long in Aukus, we talked too much and delivered too little, adding that has now changed under our three governments.

Over the weekend, Facebook owner Meta announced "Project Waterworth," an ambitious plan to build out a globe-spanning, 31,000-mile subsea internet cable. That's longer from end to end than the circumference of the Earth. When completed, the massive cable is expected to connect the US, Brazil, South Africa, India, and other regions along the route. The project represents the latest push by Big Tech companies to control a greater share of subsea cable infrastructure. That general shift in who maintains the internet's "pipes" could shift even further with the heightened data demands introduced by competition over advanced AI.

Attacks on underwater cables running through strategically significant bodies of water in both the Baltic Sea and the South China Sea by Russia and China, respectively, in recent months has top officials concerned they are not "mere coincidence." Maritime sabotage efforts in both regions of the world appear to have been on the rise over the last several years, with a notable spike in recent months after at least three separate attacks occurred in as many months, beginning in November, and the top suspects are Russia and China. "The Kremlin has been running a hybrid campaign against Europe for years, ranging from spreading disinformation and cyberattacks to weaponizing energy supplies. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, these efforts have intensified dramatically," EU High Representative Kaja Kallas told Fox News Digital. "However, Russia is not the only challenge we face."

Of all the perils he faced during World War II, Winston Churchill said German submarine wolfpacks were his greatest concern, because their attacks on merchant ship convoys threatened to choke Britain's economic lifelines. Today, it seems there is another emerging undersea threat, one that has the potential to disrupt the global economy by severing fiber-optic lines of communication that run along the world's various seabeds. There are nearly 400 undersea cables that stretch for almost three-quarters of a million miles, the densest concentrations of them being in the North Atlantic and the North Sea, the Mediterranean, and in Southeast Asia and around Japan. They carry virtually all (97%) international communications, and their exact locations are reasonably well-known. They are also increasingly vulnerable to being tapped or even cut by advanced submarine craft of a range of types, from manned mini-subs to remotely operated undersea drones, and even fully autonomous "U-bots."