That arena is principally open to state actors only.
Yep. I’ve got some small scale fiber splicing gear I use for work occasionally. The maximum capacity is four strands at a time. It takes about an hour or so to do it properly, for me anyway.
Cut, clean, heat, splice, test, and repeat. I can’t imagine how long it would take to do a 96 strand cable while underwater. You’d need a purpose designed clean room that would fit in a submarine.
Then there’s the not small issue of someone noticing that there’s no traffic on that extremely valuable asset for the length of time it takes to actually do it. That alone would set off multiple alarms.
Can it be done? Yea, I’m sure it can be. But pulling it off would be incredibly difficult.
L