China's Undersea Cable Cutter Puts India's Digital Lifeline in Focus

In the introduction to their findings, the authors have clearly said that the primary use for this tool will be cutting of deep sea cables.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

Chinese scientists have developed a 5 kg cutting-edge electric cutting device specifically designed to sever deep-sea cables, a critical advancement in underwater technology with significant strategic implications for its neighbouring countries.

The device was developed by the state China Ship Scientific Research Center (CSSRC) and one of its key laboratories on deep-sea manned vehicles.

It was introduced in a peer-reviewed paper, accessed by this newspaper, published in the Chinese-language journal "Mechanical Engineer" on 24 February.

The paper titled, "Design of an electric cutting device for deep-sea cables" has six authors who are associated with the China Ship Scientific Research Center, a key state laboratory of deep-sea manned vehicles, situated at Wuxi, Jiangsu.

Interestingly, the paper was not available in the online version of the journal, while the rest of the papers published were present. The Sunday Guardian’s email to the CSSRC elicited no response on this.

In the introduction to their findings, the authors have clearly said that the primary use for this tool will be cutting of deep sea cables.

“In order to cater to the demands of lightweight and compact working tools, as well as deep-sea cable fracturing, this paper developed an electric cutting device for deep-sea cables.

Based on the main structural forms of deep-sea cables, we determined the suitable structural phase layer forms for deep-sea cables and carried out the structural scheme design, main parametre design, and experimental testing of the electric cutting device for deep-sea cable. The experimental result shows that the electric cutting device for deep-sea cable can complete the cutting of armored cable with a diametre of 60 mm with 100% success.”