David McDonald’s Post

Undersea cables and the vulnerability of American power: Undersea cables are the soft underbelly of American power. History demonstrates that protecting them is of critical importance.

I was recently invited onto this Special Report segment on #microgrids, which have been rising in use to help improve resiliency across the U.S. and beyond. I discussed a couple examples of how Schneider Electric has used microgrids for municipal and military clients to keep power running for our cities’ critical facilities and to ensure mission readiness on our military bases.    An interesting watch overall, check out the full segment here: https://lnkd.in/gYyFJ7Vb

Undersea infrastructure is necessary for modern civilization, acting as both a source and a conduit of energy and as the nervous system of global communications. The West’s enemies realize this already, and are acting accordingly. If the West doesn’t catch up, it will lose out in a critical dimension of global security. https://archive.ph/QdbYo

How is the submarine cable Cold War 2.0 shaping up? REDUNDANCY Create redundancy, the Humboldt cable by passed South Africa -aligned with the Russia and China- and Eurasia connecting the US directly to Australia. MONITOR AND REPAIR The Royal Navy brings something to the Five Eyes party with its new Proteus ship. "a testbed for new specialist capabilities, required for monitoring waters important to UK interests" "serve as the launchpad for remotely-operated vehicles and a home to a suite of specialist capabilities similar to those found in the oil and gas industries." China may exercise the option to build their own cable from China directly to South America. "China's three main carriers – China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom), China Mobile Limited and China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd(China Unicom) – are mapping out one of the world’s most advanced and far-reaching subsea cable networks, according to the four people, who have direct knowledge of the plan." Keith King “One of the big risks right now is heading in the direction of bifurcated networks. Does this create a system where you don’t have connectivity, with a quasi-cold war, eastern bloc versus the west?” says April A. Herlevi, an expert in China’s foreign economic policy at the Center for Naval Analyses. “I don’t think we’re there yet . . . but I do worry that’s the direction we’re headed in. (link in the comments)

How well do we really understand connectivity infrastructure? Dive into the shadowy world of submarine cables and their impact on our lives with this ABC News In-depth documentary, featuring insights from @TeleGeography. It uncovers the opportunities these critical links present, as well as the geopolitical games they influence. ♟️ What surprised you the most about the role of submarine cables? Watch the documentary here: https://lnkd.in/dvP9SUHd and share your thoughts! #connectivity #geopolitics #telecoms

I wrote about the importance of Red Sea submarine cables and some of the challenges posed by the current conflict in this part of the world: https://lnkd.in/daBCGinQ

Great insight from TeleGeography on the concentration of subsea cables in the Red Sea…

The Electromagnetic Spectrum is a congested, contested, competitive and continuously changing domain of operations. In modern and future operations, spectrum degradation must be considered the norm rather than the exception, ranging from degraded communications and even cyber-attacks.

At a time of increasing tensions between great powers, who will protect critical undersea infrastructure, and how will they do it? This piece by Eoin McNamara highlights some of the challenges. https://lnkd.in/dWXThxxz

Undersea cables are key in our infrastructures.