Sweden has conducted its first surveillance mission as an official NATO member near Russia’s border over the Baltic Sea.
The Swedish Air Force reconnaissance flight flew by the eastern border of Poland, shared in part by the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
The mission involved deploying a Saab 340 aerial early warning and control plane and a Gulfstream S102B Korpen electric intelligence aircraft, as well as capabilities from the 72nd Special Air Squadron and the 73rd Signals Intelligence Squadron.
Both flights took off from Malmen Air Base in southern Sweden.
Sweden and NATO
The surveillance flight took place just three days after Sweden became NATO’s 32nd member, ending the country’s 200-year non-alignment and a 20-month delay following a holdout by Turkey.
Sweden’s membership took effect after it delivered its instrument of accession to the treaty in Washington, DC.
“Sweden’s accession makes NATO stronger, Sweden safer and the whole Alliance more secure,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
“Today’s accession demonstrates that NATO’s door remains open and that every nation has the right to choose its own path,” he added.
The country’s recent contributions to the alliance include troop reinforcements in Latvia as well as delivering a seminar alongside NATO’s Civil Protection Group to bolster inter-alliance cooperation between private sectors.
