The Swedish SIGINT plane has flown near the borders with Russia for 2 consecutive days.
On Aug. 2, 2023, a Swedish Air Force S102B Korpen GIV-SP Sign Intelligence (SIGINT) plane carried out a surveillance mission over Finland. It was the very first time the plane might be tracked on-line contained in the Finnish airspace. Utilizing callsign SVF 666, the S102B #102002/022 took off from Linköping, in southern Sweden, at 09.57LT and headed northeast in the direction of the Finnish airspace, cruising at FL390.
After overflying Rovaniemi, the ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) plane descended to FL250 and flew some racetracks over the northern a part of Finland, west of Murmansk. It then headed southbound and established one other surveillance sample parallel to the border with Russia north of St. Petersburg.
Th S 102 B Korpen is a extremely modified Gulfstream IV plane outfitted with sensors to carry out sign intelligence: it will probably scan the electromagnetic spectrum to seek out, gather and categorize indicators from radars, navigation equipments and weapon methods. The Swedish Air Power’s 74th Particular Aviation Squadron, based mostly at Malmen Airport outdoors Linköping, operates two such particular mission planes.
General, its mission on Aug. 2, lasted 7 hours, with 4 being “on station”. We don’t know the place its sensors have been pointing but it surely’s secure to imagine that flying over northern Finland they’d attain of the Russian navy actions within the Kola Peninsula, dwelling to Putin’s Northern Fleet that, together with a number of different Russian Navy warships, is collaborating in Ocean Protect 2023 naval train.
SE Air Power S102B Korpen/Raven is on a really particular mission right this moment.
From Finnish air house it’s listening to any and all emissions that outcome from navy exercise on Russian Kola Peninsula.
This can be a first. For some cause FI air house has been off limits earlier than.
4A81F9 pic.twitter.com/Ak0FIzpQUi
— Markus Jonsson mastodon.world/@auonsson (@auonsson) August 2, 2023
Apparently, the plane carried out an identical mission profile on the next day, Aug. 3, 2023, taking off from Lulea, in northeastern Sweden. However the Korpen this time was not alone: as SVF666 (similar callsign as yesterday) flew over southern Finland within the racetrack used to keep watch over the area of St. Petersburg, a U.S. Air Power RC-135W Rivet Joint (JAKE 11) was on obligation on the northern racetrack. The missions of the 2 plane have been clearly coordinated in such a approach, there was a relentless surveillance each within the north (Murmansk) and south (St. Petersburg) areas.
That Rivet Joint (#62-4131) is just not new to the Finnish airspace: on Mar. 23, 2023, it flew the type’s first mission over Finland. That is what this Creator wrote commenting that first historic mission:
Whereas RC-135s function within the Arctic area, “observing” the Russian actions within the Barents space, additionally dubbed “Russia’s Naval Yard”, from the japanese a part of the Finnish airspace, they will surveil the actions alongside the Finland/Russia border from a a lot nearer and “comfy” place: from there, the Rivet Joint’s big range of antennae and sensors, can eavesdrop enemy indicators, transmissions, and detect frequencies utilized by radio and radars, pinpointing websites of curiosity, cellular stations, SAM batteries, and so on. inside a big space of operation.
Finland joined NATO in April whereas Sweden will be a part of the Alliance within the close to future, however a brand new prolonged navy cooperation within the Arctic and Baltic areas is already underway.
David Cenciotti is a journalist based mostly in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and browse navy aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and lots of others, overlaying aviation, protection, struggle, business, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with completely different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Power, a personal pilot and a graduate in Laptop Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.
