Taiwan plans five armored undersea cables for resilience

Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs has announced plans to deploy two international and three domestic undersea communications cables with armor-like protection to strengthen the country’s communications resilience.

• The five undersea cables form part of a “three-dimensional defensive communications network” across land, air and sea, and will be hardened with protective layers to resist damage, though the ministry has not yet announced completion timelines; related measures include disaster-resilient base stations, satcom-on-the-move vehicles, and mobile diesel generators to maintain communications during emergencies.
• The announcement follows alleged sabotage of cables by Chinese civilian vessels and new legal amendments imposing prison terms and confiscation of vessels/tools for saboteurs; the broader initiative will also add an Amazon low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation and inaugurate a geosynchronous satellite built by U.S. manufacturer Astranis to enhance redundancy beyond undersea infrastructure.