The Swedish Air Pressure final week carried out its first reconnaissance flights close to Russia’s border since formally becoming a member of NATO.
The 2 flights on Saturday have been geared toward accumulating intelligence details about the deployment and actions of Russian troops and weapons within the area, Open Source Intelligence experts said.
One flight was made by a Swedish Gulfstream S102B Korpen GIV-SP Sign Intelligence (SIGINT), which flew over Poland close to the borders of Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave and Belarus.
The S102B Korpen is a extremely modified Gulfstream IV plane geared up with sensors to carry out sign intelligence: it will probably scan the electromagnetic spectrum to find, accumulate, and categorize alerts from radars, navigation gear, and weapon methods.
The second flight was carried out by a Saab 340 radar plane over the Baltic Sea. The Saab 340 is an airborne early warning and management (AEW&C) plane. The mounted radar is able to monitoring ships, planes, and missiles as much as 190-250 miles whereas at an altitude of 20,000 ft.
🇸🇪 #SWEDEN – #Update
New NATO member Sweden carried out the primary sorties out over the Baltic Sea, alongside the jap border of Poland, with a Saab 340 AEW&C Plane.
The missions have been seemingly carried out to collect intelligence on Russian navy exercise within the area.#Itamilradar pic.twitter.com/uDGeOjzhb1— OSINT Knowledgeable (@OsintExperts) March 9, 2024
In keeping with the Ukrainian navy web site Militarny, the planes are a part of the 72nd and 73rd squadrons of the particular aviation intelligence unit, primarily based at Malmen Air Base exterior Linköping.
Sweden’s accession to NATO and Russian navy motion
On Thursday, following a handover of paperwork in Washington, Sweden grew to become NATO’s thirty second member.
As fears of Russia extending its aggression into the Baltic states mount, Sweden’s membership provides the alliance new methods of deterring Russian assaults.
Nima Khorrami, an analyst on the Arctic Institute, beforehand advised Enterprise Insider that Sweden’s membership “extends NATO’s missile vary, placing strategic places in Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg inside attain.”
“This provides one other layer of deterrence towards potential Russian aggression, as NATO forces can successfully reply to threats in actual time,” he mentioned.
Oscar Jonsson, a researcher on the Swedish Defence College, beforehand advised BI that “Sweden is necessary for each safely receiving NATO troops and capabilities and by being laborious to focus on for Russian forces whereas being shut sufficient to Kaliningrad to launch long-range precision capabilities.”
A Lithuanian intelligence report launched this week mentioned Russia was responding to NATO’s further members by stepping up its navy presence within the Baltic area.
Russia has lengthy accused NATO of looking for to encircle it, with Putin citing the declare as a part of the justification for Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
