The military alliance NATO has increased its presence in the Baltic Sea. Sweden’s SVT was involved in the French surveillance flight, which extended as far as Finnish territorial waters.
20:46•Updated 21:57
Every month, a French surveillance flight takes off from Sweden and heads for the Baltic Sea, says the Swedish public broadcasting company SVT.
NATO has increased its presence in the Baltic Sea region. For some time now, a French surveillance plane has been flying regularly over the Baltic Sea from Sweden.
– We are often in Sweden and once a month we participate in NATO’s monitoring operation in the Baltic Sea, says the leader and commander of the French operation Geoffrey.
For security reasons, SVT only gives the first names of the soldiers in their report.
The tense situation in the Baltic Sea and the increased presence of Russia and NATO countries have increased the need for maritime surveillance from the air.
– We regularly encounter Russian military forces on our flights, says Geoffrey.
The French conduct surveillance flights in Finnish airspace as well. SVT was on the flight, which was headed to the eastern side of Åland and the Archipelago Sea.
The surveillance plane is of the Atlantic 2 type and has been used by France since the Cold War. The monitoring technology inside the machine is new.
– We can see far into the horizon. We can also detect very small things like submarine periscopes, says Geoffrey.
The purpose of air surveillance is to keep an eye on Russia’s movements in the Baltic Sea. Monitoring can also help prevent hybrid operations against critical infrastructure.
Correction 29.11. 9:39 p.m.: The surveillance flight was headed to the east of Åland, not Åland as the article said earlier.