A "cutting-edge" drone submarine will be used to defend Britain's internet cables against potential attacks from Vladimir Putin, a report has claimed.

The unmanned craft will help to protect against underwater threats from Russian submarines and is set to be deployed by the Royal Navy as part of the £15million Project Cetus, according to The Sun.

The UK Defence Journal revealed back in January that the project had been established to see the design and production of an "Extra Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle".

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The 17-tonne drone submarine is powered by a battery and can reportedly cover 1,000 miles over seven days.

The sub drone is being built by a technology firm in Plymouth but could be deployed around the world because it can be shipped in a shipping container.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told The Sun: “In order to meet the growing threats to our underwater infrastructure, the Royal Navy needs to be ahead of the competition with cutting-edge capabilities.”

Mr Wallace met with the Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto in Rome yesterday for talks about collaboration, European security and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Ben Key added that Project Cetus is “a capability step-change in our mission to dominate the underwater battlespace”.

The submarine's development comes after UK armed forces chief Admiral Tony Radakin warned in January that there has been a "phenomenal increase in Russian submarine and underwater activity” over the past 20 years.

He told The Times that Putin could “put at risk and potentially exploit the world’s real information system, which is undersea cables that go all around the world”.

The military chief said: “That is where predominantly all the world’s information and traffic travels. Russia has grown the capability to put at threat those undersea cables and potentially exploit those undersea cables.”

But he added that any attempt to damage the cables by Russia could be treated as an "act of war" and that the UK also needs to develop hypersonic missiles to keep up with potential threats from the Kremlin.

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