Swedish Armed Forces Confirms Second Sighting of Suspicious Submarine

: Posted On Monday, 12 January 2015 11:02

Naval Forces News - Sweden

Swedish Armed Forces Confirms Second Sighting of Suspicious Submarine

Swedish Armed Forces report they have conducted a second submarine search operation in October, just one week after ending a major operation to track and locate a "foreign underwater activity" around the archipelago of Stockholm.

In November, the Swedish Armed Forces released images of tracks on the sea bed and an apparent submarine periscope which it said proved that "a mini submarine violated Swedish territory" between October 17 and October 24 and that "at least one vessel" was involved. But the submarine was never located or identified following the search operations.

Areas where foreign underwater activity was detected in October. Source: Swedish Armed Forces

A Swedish Armed Forces statement released at the time explained: The intelligence operation that has now been underway for approximately four days in Stockholm archipelago is based on several credible observations. Over the past few days, observations have been made in more than three locations. The Swedish Armed Forces deems all of them to be very credible. "This means that the intelligence operation now aims to confirm foreign underwater activities", says Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad, Deputy Director of Operations for the Swedish Armed Forces.

The Swedish Armed Forces spokesman Jesper Tengroth confirmed yesterday a report in the Swedish newspaper "Dagens Nyheter" that the Royal Swedish Navy had launched a second search operation in the waters around the capital on 31 October, after receiving information from a "reliable" source . But again, no submarine had been found.

Visby class stealth corvettes and other Royal Swedish Navy assets were taking part in the search

"We were informed of a sighting and considered it trustworthy - we had a unit in the area and sent it to investigate," military spokesman Philip Simon told AFP. "We received a photograph but do not plan to release it." A Visby class stealth corvette carried out a search and concluded that it was a "possible submarine" but no other details of the previously unknown hunt have been made public.

"It looks like a black submarine tower. You can also see several other ships that normally use this shipping route," a military source who had seen the photo told the paper.