From sea control to seabed control

A cluster of undersea cables goes dark in a contested region. Financial transactions slow. Communications degrade. Military coordination becomes strained. No declaration of hostilities — because none is necessary. The adversary has achieved strategic effect without a single surface engagement, without triggering an escalation ladder, without giving anyone a clean target to shoot back at.

That is not a vulnerability story. It is a control story. And the vocabulary maritime strategy currently uses cannot tell it.