Eli Crane Questions Undersea Cable Repair Timelines and Permitting

Undersea Cables: Critical Global Infrastructure

• 💡 The vast majority of global data transmission relies on undersea cables, as satellites cannot handle the immense load.
• 📌 These cables are vulnerable to sabotage or damage, particularly in shallow waters (200 feet or less).
• 🌍 There are nearly 600 undersea cables worldwide, with about 100 connecting to the United States, and 34 more planned.

Protecting Critical Infrastructure

• 🛡️ Lessons can be learned from allies like NATO, which established the Baltic Sentry mission with aircraft and ships to patrol vulnerable areas, potentially deterring incidents.
• 🇺🇸 Taiwan has also increased Coast Guard patrols, showing a potential decrease in incidents.
• ⚓ The US Coast Guard, within the Department of Homeland Security, could increase patrols in vulnerable areas like Oregon, New Jersey, and New York.

Hardening and Burying Cables

• ⚓ The industry has improved cable protection by increasing burial depth from 3 meters (10 feet) to 9 meters, tripling the depth.
• 📈 This has led to a significant decrease in the number of faults per cable mile, despite a 50% increase in cable mileage over the last decade.

Repair Timelines and Permitting Challenges

• ⏱️ Actual cable repair at a station takes 1-2 days, but the primary obstacle is obtaining permits in territorial waters.
• 🇮🇩 Indonesia presents a challenge due to cabotage restrictions, requiring Indonesian-flagged or crewed vessels, which can delay permits for months.
• ⚠️ Adopting similar restrictive laws in the US could lead to lengthy repair times, making American cables more vulnerable, despite current resilience and quick repair capabilities.

Deterrence Through Redundancy

• 💬 Redundancy in the cable network acts as a form of deterrence; attacking nearly 97 cables simultaneously would require a phenomenal and likely unfeasible effort.