Tensions are high off the coast of Sweden right now, as the country’s navy hunts what it believes to be a broken down Russian submarine hiding below the surface. The whole thing feels like it’s torn from the pages of a Tom Clancy novel.
Image: Getty
Foxtrot Alpha initially reported on Monday that Sweden had started sub-hunting what was expected to be a Russian submarine that had broken down. It later emerged that eyewitnesses had seen something surfacing, depositing personnel on the shore before diving again.
The story comes as the situation above the Baltic Sea region also continues to deteriorate, with Russian fighter jets chasing off NATO and Swedish aircraft from international airspace.
The latest development in the story comes today, as the Swedish Navy is believed to have the sub cornered in the bay thanks to the combined efforts of at least five different ships. The next step, according to the top brass, is to force the sub to surface by any means possible.
And that may mean the use of depth charges according to the Navy’s Commander General Sverker Goranson:
“Our aim now is to force whatever it is up to the surface… with armed force, if necessary. The most important value of the operation – regardless of whether we find something — is to send a very clear signal that Sweden and its armed forces are acting and are ready to act when we think this kind of activity is violating our borders.”
Who has the movie rights to this one, I wonder?
Read the full story here.