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Experts appeared in front of MPs and warned them about a chasm between British and Russian capabilities.
15:17, Mon, Feb 16, 2026 Updated: 15:19, Mon, Feb 16, 2026
MPs have been warned about Russia's submarine capabilities (Image: Getty)
The UK has been warned that its enemies are way ahead in terms of submarine 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 at Ukraine, they are going after power plants, undersea infrastructure, 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."
Professor Peter Roberts spoke to MPs about Russia's capabilities (Image: UK Parliament)
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."
Derek Twigg MP asked Professor Roberts if he thought that "any tiredness or lethargy in building up our own capabilities" could be "pretty serious".
The expert replied that he did.
The Kremlin's 64 submarines have the ability to operate down to 6,000 metres, and all the time under the ice, Professor Roberts said.
Britain currently has nine active nuclear submarines.
The Russian Poseidon 6 nuclear torpedo is designed to "create tsunamis that will flood ports", Professor Roberts explained.
HMS Agamemnon is the sixth Astute-class nuclear-powered fleet submarine of the Royal Navy (Image: Getty)
"This is President Putin’s personal project," he added. "He has assured the funding for it, so the political investment in this force as a tool is absolutely clear. It also gives them resilience, in terms of the sheer number of platforms they have."
"I think they are way ahead of us," the specialist warned.
He added that legal aspects are also important.
Professor Roberts said: "All the activity we have talked about today is governed by three Acts, from 1884, 1958 and 1982. The fact that we are talking about modern military strategy for a war that is ongoing today, governed by a law that was written in 1884 about submarine telegraph cables is frankly frightening.
"There are national laws that we can put in place, and that is one thing that Brexit might even help us with, because we could do it unilaterally."
Brett Phaneuf, founder and chief executive of Submergence Group LLC in the United States and M Subs Ltd in the UK, said told the House of Commons Defence Select Committee that "key adversaries have been very rapidly developing a considerable mass or number of extremely sophisticated capital assets, both crewed and uncrewed, that we are going to find hard to match in Europe or in the United States in the near term".
This is predominantly in relation to China, he added, but the Russians have "a long history of proliferating their excellent capabilities in subsea design, and we underestimate that capability at our peril". "They build tractors," Mr Phaneuf said, "to some degree, which are very sophisticated, robust and reliable.
"We tend to build Ferraris. I think ours are better, but the Chinese in particular are going to have a lot of them and that is something we are going to have to contend with."
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It comes as the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is reportedly considering making a significant increase in defence spending.
Number 10 is expected to try and meet an existing spending target earlier than planned, which may cost of billions of pounds.
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