NATO Ally Upgrades Helicopters to Hunt Russian Submarines at Night

Sweden is rolling out new technology in its military across the Baltic Sea, in a move that could up the Nordic country's—and NATO's—ability to track Russian submarines close to the alliance's territory.

Earlier this month, Sweden's military announced that its navy had carried out drills using helicopters able to detect submarines at night or during poor weather conditions. The exercises were held around the Stockholm archipelago and the Gotska island in the Baltic Sea for a week from October 11, and "the new capability was included for the first time in a larger exercise," Sweden's armed forces said.

"Since Sweden is located in a part of the world where it is dark for large parts of the year, it has been a priority to develop a procedure to operate after dark or in zero visibility," the Swedish military said.

The Baltic Sea is a contentious area for NATO tensions with Russia. The Baltic has increasingly earned the title of "NATO lake," with seven of the alliance's existing Nordic, Baltic and continental European member states dotted around the edge of the Baltic Sea.

"It is certain that Swedish investment in their submarine detecting helicopter capabilities is primarily related to Russia, its submarine activity in the Baltic and the war in Ukraine," added Otto Tabuns, the director of the Latvia-based Baltic Security Foundation. "The Swedish navy is the single most significant maritime challenge to the Russian navy in the Baltic Sea," he told Newsweek.

"This capability has been in progress for a number of years, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine," Jimmie Adamsson, chief of public affairs for the Swedish Navy, told Newsweek in response to a request for comment. "It is not something we have just recently acquired," he added.

"The capability is not solely aimed at Russia but of course, Russia has shown a willingness to use force and does not respect a rule-based world. That makes them a threat that needs to be addressed and this is one way," Adamsson said.

Sweden is now also joining NATO, following Finland into the alliance after Russian invaded Ukraine. Yet Russia also sits on the shores of the Baltic, not least with its Baltic Sea-facing Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

"Russian submarine activity is an increasing challenge for NATO in the High North and Baltic Sea region," according to Ed Arnold, research fellow for European security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank. These "highly specialized helicopter operations" being rolled out by Stockholm fit into a "a layered approach to detecting different types of underwater activity for the protection of undersea critical national infrastructure," he told Newsweek.

With Finland inducted into NATO and Sweden soon to follow, the alliance "has more control over the Baltic Sea and needs to extend its intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance coverage," Arnold argued.

"Moreover, this is also an opportunity for Sweden to demonstrate its immediate value" to NATO, he said.

Sweden's navy being added to NATO's anti-submarine warfare resources in the region is "one of the key reasons why Russia has been vocally opposed to Sweden joining NATO," Tabuns added.

Russia's submarine fleet is considered to be a much more impressive force than its surface fleet, and Moscow has expanded its submarine patrols close to NATO members in recent years.

"Russia has massively invested in its underwater capability since 2014, first of all submarines," former Ukrainian First Deputy Chief of Defense and Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Navy, retired Admiral Ihor Kabanenko, told Newsweek in May.

Yet experts say NATO's anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities "atrophied" following the end of the Cold War, leaving the alliance to play catch-up against not only Russian submarines, but in working out how best to fight a new war on the seabed and protect the underwater cables lurking there. NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, has said that safeguarding critical undersea infrastructure "is essential to our security and defense because it is key to protecting the security and prosperity of our societies."

These internet, electricity and natural gas connections underneath the Baltic—and their vulnerability to Russian submarines—are a "particular concern today for both Sweden and its NATO allies," Tabuns said.

"Since it became obvious in the early 2010s that there will be nothing like a peaceful co-existence with Russia and that Russia emphasized its subsea assets for strategic signalling against NATO and its partners, Western navies [have been] struggling hard to regain their ASW skills," added Johannes Peters, who heads up the Center for Maritime Strategy and Security at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University, Germany.

Russia's fleet in Kaliningrad is able to leverage long-range precision strikes and ASW capabilities against NATO in the Baltic Sea, he told Newsweek, with seabed warfare of "particular interest in confined areas like the Baltic Sea, where every point at sea can be attacked from land."

In September, NATO carried out military drills in the Baltic Sea with around 30 warships and more than 3,200 personnel from 15 countries.

"Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has radically altered the security situation in the Baltic Sea, and NATO has substantially increased its defensive presence in the region at sea, on land and in the air," said acting NATO spokesperson, Dylan White. "Exercises like these send a clear message that NATO stands ready to defend every inch of Allied territory."

Update 10/25/2023 at 11:55 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional comments from Johannes Peters and Jimmie Adamsson.