Baltic trap for the Fleet of the Russian Federation: How new Swedish missiles change the rules of the game

Petersburg or Kaliningrad and, accordingly, to withdraw from the Baltic to the North Sea and the wider Atlantic Ocean. At the end of December, the Swedish Ministry of Defense instructed the Swedish defensive company SAAB to put a new version of the Mark 3 anti -ship RBS 15 anti -Swedish Armed Forces. "Sweden will have a significant expansion SAAB leader. The new order for Mark 3 is estimated at $ 72 million. The first deliveries are expected next year.

The RBS RBS 15 weighing 1700 lbs is the Swedish classic of the 1980s. A radar rocket, available in air, maritime and ground base, can affect ships in the sea and targets on land 440-funta warhead. It is a strong and reliable rocket. "RBS 15 has been specifically designed for the difficult environment and harsh weather conditions of the Baltic Sea," Johansson said. The range of the older version of the Mark 2 rocket is only 40 miles. Mark 3 overcomes significant 120 miles.

The Corvettes of the Swedish Fleet shoot Mark 2 and 3, while the coastal artillery of the fleet was disbanded in 2000 and reformed in 2016 in connection with Russia's first invasion of Ukraine two years earlier, had only Mark 2. For the first time installed on trucks that move near Stockholm or Gotland Island, Mark 3 can be aimed at enemy - that is, Russian - warships just when they leave the Gulf in a warmer and open waters.

Combined with sensors in space and in the air, on land, on sea and underwater rockets effectively close the Atlantic for Russian warships coming from St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad, and close Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg for Russian warships From the Atlantic. The Swedes are not alone in their desire to squeeze the Russian Navy. In 2021, when Russia was preparing to widen the war in Ukraine, the Baltic countries, which were in NATO, doubled the costs of their own defense.

Estonia has purchased anti -ship Blue Spear 5G for $ 100 million in Israel; Latvia purchased Naval Strike Missils for $ 100 million for $ 100 million, which are also launched from Earth. Blue Spear with radar guidance began to enter Estonia early last year. "The selected weapons system will be the cornerstone of the Estonian Navy for decades," said Yuri Saska, Commander of the Navy Estonia. Blue Spear and NSM with infrared guidance are not the most long -range missiles in the world.

The Blue Spear flight range is 200 miles and NSM is 115 miles. But this is more than enough, given the geography of the Baltic Sea. There are only 100 miles from South Latvia to Kaliningrad. The same distance from Northern Estonia to St. Petersburg. The growing arsenal of Sweden's anti -ship missiles was less threatening to Russia before the latter expanded its war in Ukraine in February 2022 and forced Sweden, then a neutral one, to join the Transatlantic Alliance. Sweden joined NATO in March 2024.

Its neighbor Finland, also the former neutral state, did it 11 months earlier. NATO expansion in response to Russia's attack on Ukraine has made the Baltic Sea an extremely hostile place for the Russian fleet. And it becomes even more hostile to every deployed Sweden and her colleagues on NATO rocket.