NATO allies confront Russian vessels near Svalbard

NATO allies tracked and confronted Russian deep-sea vessels near Norway's Svalbard archipelago this spring as they rehearsed deploying technology designed to disable critical undersea cables, according to two Western officials cited in a report published on September 10, 2026. The vessels were prevented from completing their exercise and eventually left the area, and no cables were damaged. The operation was carried out by Russia's Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, known as GUGI, which used deep-sea submersibles to simulate the deployment of the technology, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A joint operation involving Britain, Norway and the United States tracked and confronted the Russian vessels at sea. Officials declined to explain how the technology works, saying only that it was designed to damage cables while leaving little evidence of who carried out an attack, and that the exercise simulated its use in the event of a conflict with NATO. Britain and Norway disclosed in April that they had uncovered covert Russian activity in Arctic waters, but the new technology, the location near Svalbard and the US involvement had not previously been reported.