Tension is rising in the Baltic region. THE Navy Swedish confronts with a certain regularity the submarines of the Kremlin. “Almost every week,” said the sailors’ chief of operations, Capt. Marko Petkovic.
In this sense, and according to the British newspaper The Guardian, THE Swedish Navy is preparing for “a new surge” in the event of a ceasefire or armistice in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The Swedish command assured that Moscow continually strengthens its presence in the northern European region and members of the Swedish Navy have frequently observed its ships.
The maritime region Baltic faces an ever-widening range of “threats,” including suspected hybrid drone attacks, sabotage of underwater infrastructure and a “constant” flow of old tankers carrying crude oil from Russia.
In fact, last month the UK Defense Secretary warned of a Russian “spy” ship that had entered British waters. Once there, laser beams aimed at several military pilots. The defense minister stressed that they were facing a “new era of threats” from “hostile countries”.
anti-submarine warfare
The Scandinavian country recently hosted a major NATO anti-submarine warfare exercise. Nine countries were present at the training, including Sweden, Germany, France and United States.
Hundreds of people practiced their underwater hunting techniques to “strengthen the readiness, interoperability and responsiveness of the armed forces.” Alliance in the face of threats of this type.
Deployment of Swedish armed forces in the presence of a Russian submarine in the Baltic Sea.
“The Baltic nations contribute to NATO an impressive anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability, as well as experienced maritime leadership and capability. We thank the Swedish Navy for organizing Exercise Merlin, as well as all navies in the NATO who participate and share their regional experience in ASW”, includes a press release from the Allied Maritime Command, the naval operations authority of the Atlantic alliance.
As the Manchester newspaper reports, the “underwater landscape” of the Baltic “This makes it difficult to detect” underwater vessels given the ease of their camouflage.
The Swedish captain confirmed that Moscow “Increased its capabilities” and produced a Kilo-class submarine – nomenclature used by the US military. NATO classify Soviet submersibles – a year in the city of St. Petersburg and the Kaliningrad enclave, located between Poland and Lithuania.
He added that Russia was carrying out a program of “constant and deliberate modernization of its ships”.
“Once a ceasefire or armistice is established Ukrainewe can only assess, and we do assess, that Russia will strengthen its capabilities in this region,” he said. Petkovic. “That said, the Swedish Navy must continually develop and focus on the bigger picture,” the military command added.
He called it “worrying” the parallel fleet of Russian tankers and did not rule out the possibility that these ships could be used to launch drones. “THE shadow fleet in itself it is not a military problem, but it could affect our nations from a military point of view,” Petkovic added.
Difficult conditions
Underwater conditions in the Baltic area are not the most favorable. Various factors such as poor visibility on the waterhigh salt levels and low temperatures make underwater infrastructure particularly vulnerable in the region.
The Swedish Navy’s chief of operations believes that increasing surveillance of the NATO “It has an impact.” He declared that since the start, last January, of the Operation Baltic Sentinel – the Atlantic alliance’s mission to secure the region’s underwater infrastructure – “we have not seen any incidents with the cables”.
And he decided: “First of all, it shows that the alliance works, cohesion. And we close ranks against a specific threat. The Baltic Sentry proved it. “Regardless of whether any of the incidents were state-sponsored, due to poor navigation or any other intervening cause, it has raised awareness among the merchant fleet to be more careful when navigating our regional waters.”
Maritime sabotage
The tension in the region comes from before. On November 17 and 18, 2024, two submarine fiber optic cables were damaged in the Baltic Sea, in an act that the German Minister of Defense, Boris Pistoriuscalled it “sabotage.”
Swedish police said a Chinese cargo ship, the Yi Peng 3was in the area of the cables when they were cut. These cables, as thick as a “garden hose”, carry 99% of international telecommunications traffic for personal, commercial and government use, over 850,000 miles. 1,574,200 kilometers.
Such wiring facilitates financial transactions worth billions of dollars per day, transport sensitive government communicationsmake voice calls and transmit data over the Internet.
submarine cables
Dr. Sidharth Kaushalsenior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank, said undersea cables are “vital to the global economy”.
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