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ONE OF THE world’s leading communications companies is to travel to Ireland to meet Government, Defence Forces and Garda officials in the coming weeks to discuss what they’re describing as a revolutionary system to protect vulnerable subsea cables.
The Journal spoke to experts from Nokia at a NATO-organised event in Portugal recently who said they had found a new way to monitor for signs of possible attacks on cables off the Irish coast.
A large number of undersea telecommunications cables pass through Irish waters and head out into the Atlantic both to the US and mainland Europe. There are also several gas and electrical lines running into Ireland.
As we have reported previously, it is believed that Russian ships have been mapping the cables off the coast.
NATO General Hans-Werner Wiermann – head of Critical Undersea Infrastructure Co-ordination – said that unusual ship traffic near cables in European and Irish waters has shown the possibility of mapping activities.
The Nord Stream pipeline sabotage case has prompted European and NATO officials to devise a strategy to prevent future attacks.
The recent exercise observed by The Journal was a major military mobilisation held at coastal towns an hour south of Lisbon in which NATO and partner nation navies gathered to test new technology such as undersea and airborne drones and equipment to monitor cables and pipelines.
REPMUS, or Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping with Maritime Unmanned Systems, is a Portuguese-led project that looks at developing new technology, particularly for navies.
A second event, Dynamic Messenger, also takes place in tandem during the event and sees scientists work with military personnel to test new subsea equipment.
Essentially REPMUS is the experimentation with the craft and Dynamic Messenger is about putting that into action in a scenario based assessment. There are also exhibits for companies to meet prospective people.
The exercise has been held in a purpose-built Portuguese naval drone testing base on the beautiful sand beaches of Troia Bay since 2004.
Nearby and around a headland is the coastal resort town of Sesimbra (a continental cross between Tramore and Kinsale, in size and design). Critically, for this exercise, it is the landing point for the undersea cables Atlantis Two and Sat-3/WASC.
There were multiple locations where drone manufacturers, scientists and Portuguese and Spanish naval vessels were carrying out experiments with a dummy subsea cable on the seabed.
In 2014 the NATO Centre for Research and Experimentation (CMRE) joined the REPMUS exercise for the first time and since 2019 NATO experts in unmanned droones have been involved.
Nokia, the Finnish technology company, has been working on new technology that could revolutionise how vulnerable cables and pipelines are monitored.
Undersea cables contain fibre optics – that is they send messages using light. Nokia has come up with an invention that monitors fluctuations in the light travelling down the cables. These fluctuations can be measured to determine if the cable is in trouble not just from saboteurs but also from seismic events.
The sensors, called Distributed Acoustic Sensor, have already been deployed at a number of offshore platforms in Norway.
“These conversations are happening, we are meeting the Irish in October,” a Nokia expert, who did not wish to be identified, said in Portugal.
“We are introducing this technology to them and we are having a variety of people and getting an idea what Ireland needs and then working out what they need.
“We can demonstrate the system to them – get a pre-existing cable and this system can be installed in a matter of days so if they opt for this system we can do it relatively quickly,” they said.
They explained how the system works – using the light travelling down the cable to monitor.
“It is an existing seabed cable, it looks at the deformation of the cable. Light goes down the fibre cable and everytime that cable gets deformed in some way it creates a little mirror and it sends light back.
“We can then work back using various factors where it has happened by seeing where the pressure has built up.
“A lot of information can be divined from the pressure wave,” they explained.
The data then is sent to a command centre which monitors, in real time, these incidents.
The Nokia expert said that given the huge area covered by undersea cables it is impossible to have ships and aircraft monitoring the cables’ entire length.
“This is real time data and they will no longer rely on sonar works and other forms of detection.
“It uses existing infrastructure and you can be flexible with it – it will not provide all the answers but it can be a suite of answers that could make that environment more data rich,” he said.
Nokia declined to give details on the price of the equipment as it is commercially sensitive.
NATO had a large contingent at the event and it was clear in discussions and interviews conducted by The Journal that they were moving ahead with drone technology to protect the cables.
The Irish Naval Service was present at the event but only participated in REPMUS. The team attended as part of the NATO Partnership for Peace initiative which invites partner countries to events.
During the event naval divers worked with other nations on studying the effectiveness of an undersea drone the Irish navy use in search and rescue operations.
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Very sad for all involved. My local area is crazy with quads on both main roads and by-roads. Only a matter of time before there is a serious accident. Most are young boys on them and parents just let them.
A beach buggy should certainly not be used on a public road. They are extremely unsafe in a collision. They have no safety rating.
@Fiona deFreyne: beach buggy sounds like a toy. It’s obvious it’s a quad and kids in rural areas get to use them like cars to get around. Far too dangerous, and the parents will have to live with giving their kids (who are only above the Santa age) access to a motorised vehicle.
@Gulliver Foyle: I’m sure the parents are well aware of that without you pointing it out.
Beach buggies, quads and jeeps like Hilux’s should not be allowed on the roads, was only looking at two of these Jeep types fully kitted with killer bull bars in the last hour, not saying that this Hilux was fitted with them but they seem to be a fashion accessory these days, at the least a high category of road tax should apply to them, R.I.P. poor child.
@Charles Coughlan: good idea,a higher road tax will make them much softer in the event of a collision,
@Charles Coughlan: I did some research on ‘Bull bars’ in the early ’90′s. Even milk delivery vans were fitted with them! The CSO were no use for statistics because they only release agenda – driven sexy soundbites for the Government. Turned out the most popular 4×4′s were being fitted with ‘Bull bars’ made by companies around Dublin. Nice little remove from the manufacturers / garages (and S.I.M.I.!) Meanwhile in the U.K., the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) told me that they had a voluntary, industry – wide ban on them.
@Charles Coughlan: Jeeps like Hilux’s should not be allowed on the road..are you for real?
what idiot allowed them on that..???
@David Peate: You assume a lot. This is life changing for three families.
@David Peate: The article isn’t detailed enough to make out what exactly happened – but one idiot will always jump to conclusions. So sad, whatever occurred…
@Thomas Blackcat: cut the PC crap. No child should have access to a buggy like that and be allowed to or have the chance to take keys and bring it on the road or anywhere without an adult. It’s exactly this kind of attitude that allows scores of children to be killed on farms. A complete lack of adult supervision resulting in tragedy
@ChuckE: Where are keys mentioned?
@Thomas Blackcat: Well, we’re they on the beech buggy or not?, if they were then someone is responsible .
@Thomas Blackcat: Either they had keys or they hotwired it. Keys are far more likely, don’t you think?
@John Carberry: Perhaps. But I’ll await a more comprehensive report. Why even assume the vehicle had an engine – many beach buggies are pedal powered!?
@Thomas Blackcat: Take a hike Tom
@Thomas Blackcat: I think you’re confusing go-karts and beach buggies….
@David Peate:
I agree.
And to those who suggested they might not have been allowed –
Even if they weren’t explicitly allowed, the vehicle was left in a position where they could take it. Which amounts to the same thing as allowing them to take it and use it.
@Cian O Donoghue:
You assume a lot too…
I assumed when they “crashed into a car” was that the car was stationary and therefore probably unoccupied.
@Michael Carolan: I assumed when he said the driver of the other vehicle was uninjured, that it was occupied…
@Danny Gibson: oops!!! Should have read the full article. Lesson learned.
RIP. That was a pick up truck, not a car. Gardai quick enough to confiscate cars for no tax ….
@Anthony Halpin: nothing to do with the Gardai, it’s PSNI terrority
have your say