Unidentified submarine off the coast of Sweden: searches, statements and questions
Search and News
The first reports of a search operation appeared on the evening of October 17. According to the Swedish military, the military received information according to which a foreign submarine invaded the territorial waters of the country. To search for submarines, ships, sea aviation and several land units. The first official statements did not say in which region of the Baltic Sea the operation was being conducted, nor did they disclose information about the alleged identity of the unidentified submarine.
Last Sunday, October 19, the command of the Swedish armed forces announced new information about the ongoing operation. An official press release said that the military department will not yet publish detailed information on the progress of the operation. Nevertheless, the area of operation was named: an unidentified submarine or traces of its presence are searched near the Stockholm archipelago. Optical instruments and special equipment installed on ships are used to search for suspicious objects.
On Saturday, the Swedish press announced the information that determined the further development of the discussion of the situation. The newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, citing certain reliable sources, reported that an unidentified submarine entering the territorial waters of Sweden may belong to the naval the fleet Of Russia. Also, citing sources in the Ministry of Defense, it was reported that Swedish intelligence managed to detect a radio program from an unidentified submarine located near the Stockholm archipelago. The receiver of this radio signal was allegedly located in Kaliningrad, Russia. In addition, the Swedish publication reported that the broadcast was conducted at frequencies used by the Russian Navy in extreme situations, from which it was concluded that there was a contingency situation that occurred on board the submarine.
The Russian military commented on Sunday on statements by Swedish colleagues and press reports. According to official data, no abnormal situations on ships and submarines of the Russian Navy have occurred recently. Thus, information about a certain Russian submarine that violated the Swedish maritime border and that has suffered an accident does not correspond to reality.
Official comments of the Swedish Ministry of Defense on the information of the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet appeared only on Monday, October 20. It turned out that the available information does not allow the Swedish military to draw unequivocal conclusions about the nationality of the submarine and about any incidents on board. The military does not have information about the features of communication during emergencies and the frequencies used in this. In addition, the press service of the Swedish Defense Ministry recalled the goals of the operation: ships and helicopters are looking for traces of an unidentified submarine of an unidentified fleet. Other details of the operation were not disclosed again.
On Sunday, new information from the Swedish press. The newspaper Svenska Dagbladet again spoke about the events in the Baltic. According to this publication, the research vessel Professor Logachev has left the port of St. Petersburg. The vessel headed for the Stockholm archipelago and in the near future should come to the area of search for supposedly an emergency submarine. In addition, prior to the start of the search operation, the Russian tanker NS Concord was located in this area. After the search began, the tanker left the area. The version about the possible participation of "Professor Logachev" in the search for a submarine soon received a refutation. According to official data, the research vessel is sent to Spain, and the fact that it went to the shores of Sweden, due to the geographical features of the Gulf of Finland.
On Monday, October 20, the Russian media followed the example of the Swedish and turned to unnamed sources in the military. So, RIA Novosti reported that the unidentified submarine, which is looking for the Swedish Navy, may belong to the Netherlands. The source noted that the diesel-electric submarine HNLMS Bruinvis of the Walrus type, which performed various combat training missions, was located not far from Stockholm during the recent time. On Friday, the Dutch submarine went to the port of Tallinn, and on Monday had to leave it and go home. Perhaps it was the submarine of the Netherlands Navy that became the reason for the search operation.
In response to reports from the Russian media about the submarine of the Netherlands, the Swedish military made a statement. They noted that they were aware of the location of the HNLMS Bruinvis submarine in the Baltic Sea. Moreover, the Dutch submariners had participated in joint exercises with Sweden a few days earlier. In addition, the Swedish Ministry of Defense recalled that in the area of the Stockholm archipelago, searches are being conducted for traces of the activity of third-party submarines, and not for the submarines themselves.
The Netherlands Navy also commented on the version of the search for the submarine HNLMS Bruinvis. The head of the Navy's public relations department, Karen Loos, said that the submarine Brainvis was on Friday in the Estonian port of Tallinn and, as a result, could not be seen in the territorial waters of Sweden. The sailors of the Netherlands participated in joint exercises and were to go home earlier this week.
The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet "noted" another controversial news. On Sunday, she said that a small or ultra-small Russian submarine could be stationed off the coast of Sweden. RIA Novosti, in turn, published a comment by an unnamed representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to him, such equipment is not in service with the Russian Navy, which, by definition, cannot be located in the Stockholm archipelago. The last domestic small diesel-electric submarines belonged to the project Piranha 865 and were limited in operation in the nineties. In the past decade, both built boats of this type were disposed of.
The Swedish edition of Swedish Expressen reports on some of the details of the ongoing search operation. According to this newspaper, the search area is closed for civil navigation. All ships are prohibited from approaching closer than on nautical mile 5,4 (10 kilometers) to ships involved in the search. The airspace above the area of operation is also closed to flight. To ensure the smooth operation of the ships of the Swedish Navy, the strait between the islands of Nynashamn and Notarre, located in the south of the Stockholm archipelago, was blocked.
International reaction
The search operation of the Swedish Navy led to some claims and actions by other countries with access to the Baltic Sea. Already on October 19, the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board announced increased control over the islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, located near the Swedish territorial waters. Estonian border guards intend to monitor the situation and, if necessary, are going to take appropriate measures.
On Monday, it became aware of the official Vilnius reaction. Lithuanian border guards received an order to strengthen the protection of land borders with Belarus and the Russian Kaliningrad region. In addition, in official statements mentioned strict control of the ships.
Latvia decided to remain a bystander and does not intend to join the search for the mysterious submarine. The coast guard of this country monitors the movements and actions of warships of other states near its territorial waters, but should not participate in any work.
Another outside observer is Finland. Finnish military follow the situation and the actions of the naval forces of Sweden. Official Helsinki does not intend to connect to the operation without a request from Stockholm. Similar proposals have not yet been received.
In the context of international reaction, it is also worth considering the situation that has arisen due to Internet trolls. Shortly after the appearance of the first assumptions about the alleged Russian submarine in distress on the Swedish coast, the authors of the fake twitter account of activist Pavel Shechtman published a record of at least questionable content. It stated that the submarine “Dmitry Donskoy” of the 941 “Shark” project was sinking near the Stockholm archipelago. This “sensation” was picked up by some foreign media and soon the publications about the “Shark” sinking in the Baltic Sea diverged from the news feeds. Especially in this case, publications “distinguished themselves” that had not previously been noticed in loyalty to Russia.
It should be noted that the authors of this duck took into account several factors and chose the least realistic scenario of events. The fact is that, due to its size, the submarines of the 941 project simply cannot move freely around the Baltic Sea, which has a specific bottom topography with many shoals and cans. As for the “sensation” itself, it perfectly revealed some trends in the behavior of certain media.
Немного stories
It is known that Sweden is not the first time trying to look for some submarines off its shores. In the same way, it is not the first time that these submarines are attributed to the Soviet Union or Russia, which allegedly have aggressive plans. Over the past half century, the Swedish military has repeatedly claimed that the submarine forces of unknown third countries have violated the country's maritime borders.
The first known case of “underwater aggression” against Sweden dates back to 1962. Then the sonar systems of the Swedish Navy discovered the presence of an unidentified submarine in the area of the island of Gotland. Ships were pulled to the submarine area. The intruder boat was attacked by depth charges, after which it left the territorial waters of Sweden and departed in an unknown direction. Similarly, events developed in the autumn of 1969, when Swedish ships participating in exercises in the north of the Gulf of Bothnia discovered a foreign submarine. This time it did not come to an attack, because immediately after the discovery the submarine headed for neutral waters.
In 1974, an unidentified submarine was again found near the island of Gotland. The pursuit of her ended in failure - the submarine went into neutral waters. About two years later, another submarine was discovered during exercises in the Stockholm archipelago. The noise produced in it identified the Soviet diesel-electric boat project 613. As before, the attempt to intercept the violator of the sea borders ended unsuccessfully.
At the end of October 1981, the Swedish fishermen reported that a Soviet submarine was stranded in a shallow water two kilometers from the Karlsruhn naval base. Submarine C-363 of the 613 project, due to a breakdown in navigation equipment, lost its course and, moving on the surface, entered the territorial waters of Sweden. This submarine voyage was completed because of the shallows. About ten days after the incident, the boat was removed from the rocks, after which she returned to the base under her own power. After this incident, the submarine C-363 received the ironic nickname “Swedish Komsomol member”.
The case of the C-363 received a great response in Sweden. The scandal led to the removal from office of several persons responsible for the security of maritime borders. In addition, relations between Stockholm and Moscow have deteriorated sharply. Some "hotheads" began to argue that in all previous cases of violation of borders by submarines the navy of the Soviet Union was also guilty.
In the future, the Swedish Navy has repeatedly recorded the presence of foreign submarines in the territorial waters of the country. Several times it came to applying weaponshowever, no intruder was identified.
What's next?
For several days of searching ships and helicopters of Sweden could not find the mysterious submarine allegedly located in the Swedish territorial waters. It is hardly worth waiting for the next few days, this submarine will still be discovered. Moreover, there are certain grounds for doubts about the very fact of its existence. Nevertheless, the topic of finding an unidentified submarine or traces of its presence in the territorial waters of Sweden remains one of the main topics in the news agencies.
The version, according to which the submarine-violator has never been, has the right to life and has not yet received serious denials. However, in this case, the current actions of the Swedish Navy need to be explained. It is quite possible that since the end of last week, exercises are taking place in the region of the Stockholm Islands, during which ships and naval aviation are working out the search and destruction of the submarines of the conditional enemy. The press, in turn, misinterpreted the activity of the ships and created a "sensation."
The second version, which is becoming more common, concerns money. One of the consequences of a number of previous incidents involving the violation of maritime borders by third-party submarines was the numerous statements about the need to develop the Swedish Navy. In particular, it was necessary to increase the financing of a project. Thus, it cannot be ruled out that current events are a kind of attempt by the fleet command to "knock out" additional funding.
It can be assumed that in the foreseeable future, Swedish politicians will increase their belligerent rhetoric and will call for renewing the armed forces, explaining that they need to counter a possible threat. Probably, the military budget will indeed be increased. However, in a few weeks or months, the current story will be forgotten like all the previous ones. Politicians, the press and the public will find a new topic for mass discussion, no longer associated with the potential adversary submarines.
On the materials of the sites:
http://ria.ru/
http://interfax.ru/
http://rg.ru/
http://tvzvezda.ru/
http://rusplt.ru/
http://u-96.livejournal.com/
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