The US-China tech cold war is moving undersea
Subsea cables are the next technological battleground
WHEN Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles described the seabed as a battlefield at a regional defence gathering in Singapore earlier this year, he was preaching to the converted.
The security of undersea cables – which carry more than 95 per cent of data flows and trillions of dollars of daily financial transactions – was already top of mind for the senior military brass, geopolitical analysts and government ministers in the room.
A new project by Australia, the UK and the US was quickly announced to develop underwater drone technology to protect cables by 2027, while Singapore launched a 17-country framework covering South-east Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Oceania to explore defence cooperation on critical infrastructure.
