After Denmark & Norway, drones near Swedish naval base set off alarm bells

After Denmark and Norway, drone sightings on Thursday evening near a naval base set off alarm bells in Sweden.

The city of Karlskrona hosts Sweden’s largest naval base and the headquarters of its coast guard.

The Swedish outlet SVT reported the police as saying that multiple drones were sighted in the vicinity of a Swedish naval base in the city of Karlskrona. An official said that drones were also spotted at three other places in the country.

Earlier this week, drone sightings in Denmark and Norway caused prolonged airport shutdown in their capitals Copenhagen and Oslo multiple times. Denmark blamed Russia, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen calling it the “most serious attack so far against Danish critical infrastructure”.

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These drone sightings in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have come at a time when tensions between Europe and Russia are high after continuing Russian aerial incursions. In recent weeks, Poland, Romania, and Estonia have reported Russian aerial incursions involving planes and drones. In the most serious incursion, Poland said it joined Nato allies to shoot down Russian drones as at least 19 drones entered its airspace on the intervening night of September 9-10.

In the wake of rising tensions, Nato chief Mark Rutte has said that the alliance would shoot down Russian fighters if they would pose a threat in member-state’s airspaces. US President Donald Trump has also said that Nato allies shoot down Russian fighters breaching their airspace.

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Clear connection with Denmark, Norway sightings: Police

At Karlskrona, police personnel who responded to reports of sightings also saw drones, Mattias Lundgren, the on-duty preliminary investigation head, told SVT.

Lundgren said that drones seen in Karlskrona were similar to those seen in Denmark and three other locations in Sweden — Skane, Sturko, and Tjurko.

“It’s a larger type [the one in Karlskrona], similar to the one seen over Denmark and Skåne. It’s unclear what it is, but we’ve filed a report for violation of aviation law,” said Lundgren.

The police said that they could see “a clear connection” of sightings in Sweden to recent incidents in Denmark and Norway as drones were similar and sightings happened broadly around the same time, according to SVT.

Sweden is a member of Nato just like Denmark, Norway, Poland, Estonia, and Romania. While interceptions were not made in Denmark and Norway, host countries and Nato allies deployed fighters and pressed air defence systems to tackle intruding Russian drones and planes in Poland and elsewhere. Dutch, Italian, German, and British air forces have ramped up aerial security activity in eastern Europe with allies in the region.