“an unprecedented and sophisticated attack on an electric grid substation with military-style weapons”
His he talking about the wire cutters used to cut the fiber optic cables or the hunting rifle used to poke a few holes in some transformers?
He is talking about the combination of both.
The fiber cut took out control communications of the substation, along with the actual physical destruction.
When they equipment started to fail from the destruction the power company couldn’t automatically take it off line because the power company no longer had control over it from the control center.
The people had to have information as to what manholes the substation communications link was routed through.
And they had to know the identifying marks the fiber cables had that differentiated them from other utility and power cables that could have killed them if they tried to cut them.