Hawk

Overview

Hawk is a regional submarine cable system spanning approximately 3,400 km across the eastern Mediterranean and connecting Cyprus, Egypt, and France. It serves a corridor linking the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus with the North African coast and the south of France, forming a direct path between Europe and the eastern Mediterranean basin.

Route and Landings

In Cyprus, the cable lands at Yeroskipos, located on the southwestern coast of the island near Paphos.

In Egypt, the cable comes ashore at Alexandria, the country's principal Mediterranean port city.

In France, the cable lands at Marseille, a major hub for submarine cable infrastructure on the French Mediterranean coast.

Ownership and Operators

Hawk is owned by FLAG, a long-established submarine cable operator with a history of building and managing intercontinental and regional cable systems across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Status and Timeline

Hawk became ready for service in 2011 and remains in active operation, connecting its three landing points across the eastern Mediterranean.

Regional Context

The corridor linking Cyprus, Egypt, and France is served by several other cable systems. Among the cables sharing parts of this route are PEACE Cable, which connects the same three countries, and longer intercontinental systems such as 2Africa, Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1), and SeaMeWe-6, which transit Egypt and France as part of much broader routes to Asia and Africa. Hawk, at 3,400 km, is considerably shorter than these systems, reflecting its focused regional scope rather than intercontinental reach.

Measured round-trip latency over Hawk averages 58.1 ms across recent testing, with a best recorded result of 34.1 ms, figures consistent with a cable of this length operating across the Mediterranean.

Strategic Role

Hawk provides direct submarine connectivity between Cyprus, Egypt, and France, enabling data exchange along a corridor that bridges southeastern Europe, the eastern Mediterranean, and North Africa. With Cyprus as its sole island landing point, the cable offers the island a direct subsea link toward both the African and European continental coasts. The Marseille landing integrates Hawk into one of Europe's most concentrated cable landing environments, while the Alexandria landing connects it to Egypt's broader network infrastructure.