The UK has been warned that its enemies are way ahead in terms ofsubmarine capabilities, as the country already finds itself on the front line. Professor Peter Roberts, associate fellow at the Centre for Public Understanding of Defence and Security at the University of Exeter, said Russia's fleet has become a "critical tool" as Moscow is fighting wars in a "counter-value proposition".

He said: "This is where you strike not at targets that are military but at those that undermine the political will and societal will to fight. If you look atUkraine, they are going after power plants, underseainfrastructure, telegraph cables and oil pipelines."

He also mentioned the sending of parcel bombs in Denmark, shutting down airports and cutting off electricity supply to Berlin. Professor Roberts added: "They are not doing traditional military on military stuff that we like to imagine as a war; they are fighting a war in a very different way... Their submarine arm, both in the Russian military and through GUGI [Russia's Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research], has become an essential task in how they wage that war.

"They are having a direct impact on political will, on societies and on publics. But for them, it is helpful because it cannot necessarily be attributed and therefore they add a degree of obfuscation within the whole thing."

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The specialist highlighted 119 data cables hosted in the UK and aound $17 trillion-worth of trade passing through them.

He said: "It is the gateway to Europe; it is the gateway to the Mediterranean.

"In data cable terms, it is the gateway for Europe into the United States. It is huge.

"Not only that, but the energy pipelines are enormous connectors through the UK, so the UK is on the frontline and, more than that, President Putin has expressed, both in his doctrine and in his speeches, his desire to strike at the UK directly."

Source: Daily Express :: World Feed