Sweden sends such a radar to monitor the Baltic Sea – similar machines were donated to Ukraine | Foreign countries

The ASC 890 radar surveillance aircraft manufactured by Saab and three Swedish warships are participating in the NATO operation in the Baltic Sea.

Sweden is sending a radar surveillance aircraft and three naval warships to the Baltic Sea. They take part in a surveillance operation related to the protection of NATO sea cables.

Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter writes that the surveillance aircraft is an ASC 890 manufactured by the Swedish company Saab.

Deliveries of the first ASC 890 surveillance machines to the Swedish Defense Forces began already in the 1990s. The machine can detect ships or other aircraft from long distances away, the Swedish Defense Forces informs.

ASC 890 surveillance machines made headlines in May last year. Sweden then announced that it would provide Ukraine with two ASC 890 aircraft. The planes were part of Sweden’s arms aid package, which it gave to Ukraine, which is defending itself against Russian aggression.

Swedish Minister of Defense Paul Jonson said during the announcement of the arms aid decision that the machines will benefit Ukraine’s air defense, as they detect cruise missiles, drones and targets in the air and at sea.

NATO’s monitoring operation is a response to the outages of sea cables in the Baltic Sea that have been seen recently.

The latest incident happened just before the turn of the year, on Christmas Day, December 25. The Eagle S ship belonging to the Russian shadow fleet is suspected of having cut the sea cables between Finland and Estonia.

There is no more detailed information about the three warships. According to Dagens Nyheter, the warships could be corvettes or minesweepers.

Correction 12.1.2025 at 10:25 p.m.: The most recent case of a submarine cable breaking happened on Christmas Day, December 25, and not December 26, as previously reported in the story.