The cluster of dots on the Atlantique 2’s screens might seem like a confusing mess to the untrained eye, but not to the crew of the French naval surveillance aircraft tasked with telling friend from foe in the Baltic Sea.
“Another tarantula,” says an operator as the Russian corvette of the Tarantul class becomes visible, traveling in a pack with other Russian vessels as several nearby NATO ships also crisscross the placid northeastern European sea.
“It’s busy down there,” the soldier says.
Photo: AFP
France’s Atlantique 2 aircraft, in service since the 1980s to detect surface vessels and submarines, has been dispatched to track Russian and Russia-friendly ships, a task that became key after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The patrol aircraft took off from Brittany, France, early in the morning and stopped over in Germany before heading north to scour much of the Baltic, now a strategic focal point for Western and Russian forces.
Once the aircraft passes the island of Ruegen — where work for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany was abruptly halted — the eyes of the 14 crew members become focused.
Photo: AFP
The plane’s most senior officer, Lieutenant Commander Guillaume — who according to French military tradition gives only his first name — gives the order for the radar’s protective shell to emerge from the plane’s hull.
The equipment might look old-fashioned, but it is full of state-of-the-art technology.
The sea is calm and the weather clear, but frantic action is visible in a zone about 50km wide between the Swedish and Polish coastlines.
“We have to be able to rapidly distinguish between friendly, neutral and suspicious vessels so our forces can find the best navigation path,” Guillaume said.
French forces have orders to avoid flying too close to some coastal waters and Russian ships to avert any escalation, or entering potential danger zones where Baltic rim countries might have flagged military activities.
The flurry of activity coincides with the end of NATO’s annual Baltic Operations military exercise, which Russia responded to with maneuvers of its own.
The undertakings demonstrate a determination on both sides not to give up any areas, even if it means sending huge numbers of warships into the Baltic, where they coexist with countless merchant ships and pleasure boats.
A well-rehearsed procedure begins.
Radar operator Chief Petty Officer Maxime watches the signals, known as “tracks.”
Next to Maxime sits Lieutenant Alain, the tactical coordinator also known as “Tacco,” who picks the tracks he believes require more detailed observation, such as traces from ships that fail to activate their automatic identification system (AIS), which is mandatory for civilian vessels.
Alain shares his observations with Chief Petty Officer Christopher, to his right, who operates an imaging system provided by L3Harris Wescam — a Canadian company that specializes in gyro-stabilized cameras — at the bottom of the aircraft that yields a detailed picture of targets even tens of kilometers away.
Christopher, and Petty Officers Roxane and Nicolas frantically check databases hoping to properly identify the ship.
“It has a strange crane near the bow,” Christopher says as he zooms in on a ship that has attracted their attention, despite looking civilian at first glance.
“In fact, it’s a Moma class,” says Roxane, confirming that the vessel is a Russian water survey ship suspected of gathering intelligence.
It promptly gets an AXRU label on the situation screen, an acronym for “Russian auxiliary vessel.”
There is no shortage of acronyms: DDG UK, PBF LT, MLE FI and FFL SE designate British, Lithuanian, Finnish and Swedish vessels.
Russians are marked in red, such as the Tarantul or Parchim-class corvettes identified on the flight.
As soon as the Atlantique 2 flies over a quieter stretch, the Tacco hands his notes to Chief Petty Officer Romain.
The latter is in charge of electronic warfare and transmissions, and sends the plane’s observations to French and NATO command centers.
A full report can wait until their return.
“This small space has gotten quite crowded, which shows how interested everybody is in everybody else,” Lieutenant Henri says over the plane’s noise.
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