First reported by the AFP (Agence France presse) and then confirmed today by the French minister of armed forces, a French MPA patrolling over the Baltic Sea in international waters was locked on by the fire control radar of a Russian S400 air defense system and also jammed. The MPA was on a NATO mission.
While the context of the jamming and the locking on fire control radar is unclear, what is known is that the MPA took off from its homebase of Lann-Bihoué in Brittany, France on Wednesday and spent five hours off the coast of Sweden and Baltic countries before flying back to base. Naval News understands it probably evolved in the air defense identification zone (ADIZ – not territorial airspace) of Kaliningrad – Russian territory enclosed between Poland and Estonia – but still above international waters to be subject to this type of threat.
“On Wednesday night, a French Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft was the target of Russian intimidation. It was patrolling in international airspace over the Baltic Sea as part of a NATO operation and was locked by the fire-control radar of an S400 ground/air defense system. This aggressive Russian action is unacceptable. Our armed forces will continue to act to defend freedom of navigation in international air and sea spaces.”
Sebastien Lecornu, French Minister of Armed Forces.
Colonel Guillaume Vernet, spokesman for the French armed forces commented the incident as follow: “Illuminating our aircraft in international waters with radar is an aggressive action. The professional attitude of the crew prevented any escalation“.
The French Navy regularly deploys MPAs over the Baltic to take part in NATO mission to ensure the safety of navigation, and most of all the surveillance of Russian assets sailing through. But, following the sabotage of several undersea cables in the area like the Eastlink 2 as previously reported by Naval News, the patrols got intensified.
Indeed, in order to enhance the protection of critical underwater infrastructure (CUI), Mark Rutte – Secretary General of NATO – announced the creation of Baltic Sentry, a mission dedicated to the safety of underwater critical assets. The latter consists in deterring any future attempts to damage CUI by reinforcing the surveillance on these.
