Charles Forrester

🚨🇦🇺 Two of Australia's subsea internet cables, Indigo West and Indigo Central, were damaged last weekend inside the Submarine Cable Protection Zone off Perth. Authorities cited "very suspicious activity from a vessel near the location." Windward's multi-sensor analysis surfaced one vessel whose movements align with the location and timing of the damage. Here is what each sensor saw: AIS behavior first: The vessel entered Australia's EEZ on July 28, anchored off Perth, and loitered for nearly two weeks. On July 31 her reported ETA changed to January 1, 2027, a placeholder value typical of vessels with no genuine port call intent. Through August 8–9, the window in which the cables were damaged, her track shows repeated erratic crossings over the cable corridor. Then the satellites: Windward EO satellite imagery captured her on August 3 at 02:12 UTC, roughly 11 km west of Perth, off Marmion Marine Park. On August 8 at 21:42 UTC, SAR imagery placed her directly on the cable route. Any one of these signals can be argued with. An AIS track can be dismissed as noise. An EO frame proves presence, not behavior. A SAR return is a bright smudge on a purple field. Stack them and the ambiguity collapses: three independent sensors, one vessel, on the cables, at the time of the cuts. Fewer than 20 cables carry roughly 99% of Australia's internet traffic. Protecting them starts with knowing which vessel was there, and being able to prove it three different ways.