Sweden Sets Its Sights on Another ‘Submarine’ Season as the Baltic Ice Thaws

Now that the Baltic ice has melted, it’s “submarine season” once again for Sweden--the time of year when unidentified underwater objects make pests of themselves.

The season has been rolling around in Swedish territorial waters every year since 1981 when a Soviet submarine, allegedly snooping, ran aground outside the Karlskrona naval base.

Experts who investigated another engagement in 1982 determined the intruder also was a Soviet sub, and Sweden lodged a diplomatic protest with Moscow.

But no snooping sub has ever been captured or, so far as anyone knows, laid to rest on the bottom.

The government is strengthening its anti-submarine forces, nevertheless. Four new corvettes and a mine detector are being added to the current fleet of two corvettes, 16 older patrol boats, 12 submarines, one reconnaissance plane, 12 helicopters and six mine detectors.

In addition, $339 million has been allocated to anti-submarine warfare above the regular defense budget set through 1992.

Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, a stalwart of Sweden’s traditional peace and neutrality policy, told reporters last year that “blood will flow” if the navy gets its sights on a foreign intruder.

Today, Swedish ships and aircraft bombard suspected intruders with depth charges, mines and other weapons.

A pamphlet published by the national defense staff, titled “Our Uninvited Visitors,” tells fishermen and other coastal dwellers what to do if they sight periscopes. Hundreds of people report “sightings” each year.

So far this year, Swedish ships and helicopters have used live ammunition in nine separate chases of “submarines” along the country’s 4,750-mile coastline.

This was the first year since 1984 that the navy exploded any of the 660- to 1,980-pound, remote-controlled mines scattered around its bases and harbors, according to the armed forces spokesman, H.G. Wessberg.

The results so far? Two confirmed hits of sub-shaped undersea rocks and one possible hit of a submarine, which supposedly escaped in the roiling waters after the attack.

“That submarine was exactly where we thought it was, and the weapons were very close,” Wessberg said in an interview. “We think we might have scored some minor damage.

“The risk for the intruders is rising gradually. Not much, but it’s rising.”

Since Sweden’s coastline equals about half the distance of the front between the West’s NATO military alliance and the East Bloc’s Warsaw Pact, hostilities in these waters are of interest to both sides.

Swedish officials are careful, however, not to single out either side for the intrusions, in keeping with the country’s neutrality. But most Swedes seem to believe the Soviets are the main culprits.

In any case, Sweden doesn’t care who is snooping or why, said Wessberg. What matters is that “somebody is there who shouldn’t be.”

The main problem, he said, is that Sweden’s geography makes it one of the most difficult places in the world to hunt submarines.

The coastline is dotted with thousands of rocks and islands that subs can hide behind. Rivers running into the shallow Baltic make layers of difference in its salt content and temperature, foiling sonar and other detection gear.

The sea bottom is also littered with metallic junk and natural chunks of iron ore that offer undersea camouflage. It is estimated that at least one in every 10 Swedes owns a boat, so civilian water traffic is heavy and often noisy.

The navy loosened its rules of engagement this year, giving commanders greater leeway to fire without warning.