The General & The Journalist15 Okt 2025

Undersea cables: just how close is Russia to causing a catastrophic disaster?

While Nato looks up at the skies to Russian drones buzzing its airspace, a far more serious threat lurks below, on our ocean beds. And evidence is mounting that Moscow is already mapping the frontlines in a putative, deniable, attack. As our guest, the former British Defence Secretary, John Hutton, tells Tom, undersea cables are the means by which the economy and society itself survives. And they are vulnerable to sabotage in the form of 'accidental' cutting by shadow-shipping vessels. This could, at a stroke, kill the UK's sources of data, disabling banking, business, communications, and even the UK's 'ability to defend itself.' John Hutton is now a member of the House of Lords and sits on the National Security Strategy committee. Last month, it published a report into the potentially 'catastrophic' consequences of just such an attack and laid bare the UK's lack of preparedness. As John tells us, this would be a 'world of utter chaos, where civil order hangs by a thread.' And hoping for the best, while failing to plan for the worst, would be an absolute derogation of duty on the part of the Government.

Host: Tom Newton Dunn

Guest: John Hutton

Photo: Getty Images

Clips: DW News, 60 Minutes, CBC News

Get in touch: generalandjournalist@thetimes.co.uk

Further reading: Joint Committee on National Security Strategy Report: “Subsea telecommunications cables: resilience and crisis preparedness”

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