Russia and China, Naval Threats and Undersea Infrastructure
Russia's Deputy President Dmitry Medvedev and President Vladimir Putin have issued warnings regarding NATO targets and U.S. aircraft carriers equipped with hypersonic missiles. In the South China Sea, the Philippine Coast Guard removed a 300-meter floating barrier placed by China near the Scarborough Shoal. Additionally, U.S. naval officials expressed concern over the Russian Severodvinsk nuclear submarine's ability to evade detection in the Atlantic, highlighting the vulnerability of undersea fiber optic cables that carry 99.4% of global internet data.
dmitry medvedev· vladimir putin· south china sea· severodvinsk· undersea cables
00:02 you Russia's Deputy President Dmitry Medvedev and of course their President Putin have continued to threaten that if more missiles are moved into range of Russia, they will start attacking NATO targets. And now that there are US aircraft carriers in range with hypersonic missiles, he said this isn't basically a threat, it's a promise on behalf of the Russian Air Force that we may attack you. China says they own the South China Sea. They're a thousand miles away, literally attacking fishing boats in the Philippines. Philippine Coast Guard divers cut an underwater cable and unmoor a 300-meter floating barrier that China placed to prevent Philippine fishing vessels from accessing the Scarborough Shoal, a gesture that underscores Manila's growing defiance of Beijing's claims to the prime fishing grounds. The tiny mid-ocean outcrop seized by China in 2012 has become a global geopolitical flashpoint.
01:03 and attacking oil drilling platforms off the coast of Vietnam. I think Putin is out of line, saying that U.S. aircraft carriers can't be in the Mediterranean. That's a free open sea. And there's Russian nuclear submarines off our coast. Admiral James Foggo, the commander of U.S. naval forces in Europe, is particularly concerned about this submarine, the Severodvinsk, nuclear-powered and armed with land-attack cruise missiles with a range greater than 1,000 miles. The Severodvinsk is a brand new class of submarine and it's very capable, it's very quiet. So that's the most important thing I think in submarine warfare. When you say quiet, you're saying harder to detect, harder to track. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Does that sub
01:50 come down into the Atlantic? Suffice it to say that the Russians have increased their presence in all bodies of water around Europe and in the Atlantic. Pentagon officials told 60 Minutes that last summer the Severodvinsk slipped into the Atlantic Ocean and for weeks evaded all attempts to find it. In peacetime, losing a Russian sub in the Atlantic is embarrassing. In a crisis, it could be a disaster. Think about the global infrastructure that rests on the bottom of the ocean. You're talking about the undersea cables? That's correct. Those fiber optic cables carry 99.4% of the data exchanged over the internet by the U.S. and its allies and trading partners.
