# Sabotage offshore wind? **URL:** \ **Category:** Macro Economic Trends and Risks\ **Created:** [April 20, 2023, 3:45pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511 "2023-04-20T15:45:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DrBob2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/drbob2/32/3456_2.png) [@DrBob2](https://discussion.fool.com/u/DrBob2)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 3:45pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/1 "2023-04-20T15:45:50Z")
> **[Ukraine war: The Russian ships accused of North Sea sabotage](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65309687)** > > Disguised Russian ships are said to be preparing sabotage plans in case of war with Western powers. The details come from a joint investigation by public broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It says Russia has a fleet of vessels disguised as fishing trawlers and research vessels in the North Sea. They carry underwater surveillance equipment and are mapping key sites for possible sabotage… A Danish counter-intelligence officer says the sabotage plans are being prepared in case of a full conflict with the West while the head of Norwegian intelligence told the broadcasters the programme was considered highly important for Russia and controlled directly from Moscow. DB2 ---
**Author:** ![pauleckler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/pauleckler/32/2906_2.png) [@pauleckler](https://discussion.fool.com/u/pauleckler)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/2 "2023-04-20T15:52:29Z")
Cables and pipelines have always been difficult to defend. Ditto transportation modes like railroads bridges and airports. They are obvious targets. And in an age of drone warfare especially vulnerable. ---
**Author:** ![Leap1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/leap1/32/72176_2.png) [@Leap1](https://discussion.fool.com/u/Leap1)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 2:54am UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/3 "2023-04-21T02:54:08Z")
I am wondering what this says about what is in Putin’s head. Wont ever know or really care about the filth in that mind. If the BBC is finally discussing this I am sure we have mapped out where each of those ships are. ---
**Author:** ![Goofyhoofy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/goofyhoofy/32/4721_2.png) [@Goofyhoofy](https://discussion.fool.com/u/Goofyhoofy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 2:04am UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/4 "2023-04-22T02:04:59Z")
> [@pauleckler](#): > > Cables and pipelines have always been difficult to defend. Ditto transportation modes like railroads bridges and airports. > > They are obvious targets. And in an age of drone warfare especially vulnerable. It seems unlikely that Russia would target individual windmills, there are going to be thousands of them, perhaps tens of thousands. Much easier would be the distribution nodes where the power is collected and/or massaged into the grid. In the era of a smart bomb, and GPS isolated locations of where the windmills are, why would you go after such small targets when much richer targets exist? And even if you needed to wait until the initial strikes are done (command & control) there’s not risk. It’s not as though the windmills are going to be moving. ---
**Author:** ![pauleckler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/pauleckler/32/2906_2.png) [@pauleckler](https://discussion.fool.com/u/pauleckler)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 2:27am UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/5 "2023-04-22T02:27:36Z")
> [@Goofyhoofy](#): > > It seems unlikely that Russia would target individual windmills I agree. But they probably all connect to underwater cables that go to shore. They are vulnerable and hard to protect. Ditto pipelines bringing oil and natural gas to shore. And of course they have the coordinates of all power generating plants ready to target (as they have in Ukraine). And probably seaports. Underwater drones could probably be programmed to do the job at the push of a button. ---
**Author:** ![captainccs](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/captainccs/32/3775_2.png) [@captainccs](https://discussion.fool.com/u/captainccs)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 9:03am UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/6 "2023-04-22T09:03:40Z")
> [@pauleckler](#): > > I agree. But they probably all connect to underwater cables that go to shore. Drag a heavy anchor over the cables… Amazing the disruption that can cause with no visible damage on the surface. Still no one knows who did Nord Stream in. The Captain ---
**Author:** ![DrBob2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/drbob2/32/3456_2.png) [@DrBob2](https://discussion.fool.com/u/DrBob2)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 12:54pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/7 "2025-03-06T12:54:05Z")
> **[China’s wind turbine armada is ringing alarm bells at the MoD](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/02/13/milibands-net-zero-revolution-is-enriching-china/)** > > Ed Miliband’s reliance on Beijing for green tech raises national security fears _The company’s [Mingyang Smart Energy] involvement has also raised the hackles of the Ministry of Defence, with sources suggesting that Chinese turbines, each equipped with hundreds of sensors and floating off the British coast, may pose a security risk._ _“If a Chinese company supplies the turbines they have a legitimate excuse to visit at any time for maintenance,” a source told The Sun. “That means they can install almost anything they like.”…_ _On Wednesday in the Commons, Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, close to Grangemouth, questioned Mingyang’s involvement in the Green Volt scheme. Running turbines and cable systems on Chinese software risks leaving the UK vulnerable to a remote switch-off, she warned._ DB2 ---
**Author:** ![pauleckler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/pauleckler/32/2906_2.png) [@pauleckler](https://discussion.fool.com/u/pauleckler)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/8 "2025-03-06T16:38:21Z")
Wind turbines at sea much like pipelines and cables are virtually in defensible. They depend mostly on an honor system and counter threats to their systems. In the event of extended war they are gonners. Better have back ups. ---
**Author:** ![flyerboys](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/flyerboys/32/2123_2.png) [@flyerboys](https://discussion.fool.com/u/flyerboys)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 5:55pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/9 "2025-03-06T17:55:38Z")
> [@pauleckler](#): > > In the event of extended war they are gonners. Better have back ups. Yes, but really really really expensive compared to not having idiot wars. Humanity is getting short on time, and nothing wastes time, treasure, and devoted lives more than war. The USA made a huge, expensive, and initially stunningly successful investment in creating a post WWII environment that at least somewhat credibly imagined ever lessening carnage and destruction allowing rapid universal economic expansion and well being. > **[Steven Pinker: This Is History's Most Peaceful Time--New Study: "Not So Fast"](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/steven-pinker-this-is-historys-most-peaceful-time-new-study-not-so-fast/)** > > War deaths have increased dramatically in the modern era, new research contends, despite other statistics that suggest the risks of becoming a victim of violence have lessened But, the hope for that vision in some kind of “End of History” relatively automatic process has been brutally broken. However, just because it will require **immense hard work** on devising and acting on international, national, and local norms, once again attempting to escape endless wasteful egoistic imperial carnage, does not excuse us from that hard work, let alone the thinking deeply, and self-transforming necessary to carry the norms into daily reality. So, yes, we are falling into an era where windmills are extremely vulnerable, along with humans and those aspects of planet Earth that sustain us, and whisper of paradise. ---
**Author:** ![pauleckler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/pauleckler/32/2906_2.png) [@pauleckler](https://discussion.fool.com/u/pauleckler)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/10 "2025-03-06T21:50:45Z")
I think everyone agrees war is a waste of resources. And costs many lives and much damage. Unfortunately some leaders take exception to that idea and invade neighbors. How should other countries respond? ---
**Author:** ![flyerboys](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/flyerboys/32/2123_2.png) [@flyerboys](https://discussion.fool.com/u/flyerboys)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/11 "2025-03-06T22:22:20Z")
Help the invading country comprehend that this was a bad idea, and see to it that the leader is put before an international tribunal if possible. If not possible, put the leader under house arrest in a luxury high rise apartment with a balcony and ex-slaves to wait on him (seems, since Catherine the Great, almost always to be a somewhat sexually insecure HIM). ---
**Author:** ![MarkR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/markr/32/2011_2.png) [@MarkR](https://discussion.fool.com/u/MarkR)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 3:37pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/12 "2025-03-07T15:37:06Z")
> [@pauleckler](#): > > How should other countries respond? The ideal way to respond is with a non-proportional response. If the aggressor comes in and destroys $10B of stuff and kills 1000 men, you (the people mounting the defense) go in rapidly and destroy $100B of THEIR stuff and kill 10,000 of THEIR men. If this is done automatically and regularly, you only have to do it a few times and then everyone learns very quickly that it never pays to be an aggressor. But we don’t do this. Instead we have this ridiculous concept of proportional response. And proportional response is what you do if you want the conflict to last as long as possible. And maybe that’s what politicians and others who profit from war really want. ---
**Author:** ![captainccs](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/captainccs/32/3775_2.png) [@captainccs](https://discussion.fool.com/u/captainccs)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/13 "2025-03-07T18:55:09Z")
> [@MarkR](#): > > But we don’t do this. Instead we have this ridiculous concept of proportional response. And proportional response is what you do if you want the conflict to last as long as possible. And maybe that’s what politicians and others who profit from war really want. Imagine two sports teams playing to tie. How absurd is that? Baseball games would last for ever! 0000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000 The Captain ---
**Author:** ![DrBob2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/drbob2/32/3456_2.png) [@DrBob2](https://discussion.fool.com/u/DrBob2)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 12:34pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/14 "2025-09-04T12:34:41Z")
> **[Fear of undersea “swarm drone attack” cited as reason for US offshore wind...](https://reneweconomy.com.au/fear-of-undersea-swarm-drone-attack-cited-as-reason-for-us-offshore-wind-project-shut-down/)** > > US government says risk of a “swarm drone attack” is part of the reason for decision to halt construction on a nearly complete offshore wind farm. _The United States’ Secretary of the Interior has declared the risk of a “swarm drone attack” as part of the reason for the Trump administration’s decision to halt construction on the 704-megawatt (MW) Revolution Wind offshore wind farm, which had already reached 80 per cent completion._ _The Trump administration, citing supposed but unnamed “national security interests”, halted construction of the Revolution Wind offshore wind farm in late August._ DB2 ---
**Author:** ![SuisseBear](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/suissebear/32/3785_2.png) [@SuisseBear](https://discussion.fool.com/u/SuisseBear)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 1:14pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/15 "2025-09-04T13:14:33Z")
> [@DrBob2](#): > > the risk of a “swarm drone attack” Just as well offshore oil and gas rigs are entirely immune to such attacks. It is reassuring that this administration cares about the well-being of whales though. As per the end of the article: > Good luck to anyone trying to decipher that one. ---
**Author:** ![1poorguy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/1poorguy/32/61990_2.png) [@1poorguy](https://discussion.fool.com/u/1poorguy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 9:43pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/16 "2025-09-04T21:43:13Z")
> [@pauleckler](#): > > But they probably all connect to underwater cables that go to shore. They are vulnerable and hard to protect. Ditto pipelines bringing oil and natural gas to shore. Also, I’ve just been reading about a Chinese submersible that appears to be designed to cut internet cables. While being recently reported, apparently this is a slightly older story dating back to April. > **[China’s Underwater Power Play: The PRC’s New Subsea Cable-Cutting Ship Spooks...](https://www.csis.org/analysis/chinas-underwater-power-play-prcs-new-subsea-cable-cutting-ship-spooks-international)** > > China's new subsea cable cutting capabilities heighten global security concerns, demanding urgent action to protect critical digital infrastructure. ---
**Author:** ![Goofyhoofy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/goofyhoofy/32/4721_2.png) [@Goofyhoofy](https://discussion.fool.com/u/Goofyhoofy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 2:36pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/17 "2025-09-05T14:36:59Z")
> [@1poorguy](#): > > Also, I’ve just been reading about a Chinese submersible that appears to be designed to cut internet cables. Back in the days of before-land, pipelines were just laid across the ground. Quick, easy, cheap, - and vulnerable. Now they’re mostly buried, except in cases like Alaska where the permafrost makes that impossible. I suspect we will soon come to the point where undersea cable are buried all the way from origin to destination. (It is sometimes done now in the shallows or other hazardous situations, like sharp rocks or whatever.) It will be more expensive, but far less vulnerable to sabotage. Humans: it’s why we can’t have nice things. ---
**Author:** ![mschmit](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/user_avatar/discussion.fool.com/mschmit/32/1404_2.png) [@mschmit](https://discussion.fool.com/u/mschmit)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 9:22pm UTC](https://discussion.fool.com/t/sabotage-offshore-wind/91511/18 "2025-09-05T21:22:22Z")
> [@Goofyhoofy](#): > > I suspect we will soon come to the point where undersea cable are buried all the way from origin to destination We have had they tech to do this for a while…can be buried as deep as 1500-2000 meters. Mike ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/motleyfoolfree/original/3X/7/9/79fd5ac070f91bf05812e3f8ca1fcba633d29894.jpeg)