1 day ago
8
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
The French naval patrol plane descended rapidly through the clouds, leveling off at 900 feet above the Baltic Sea, practically skimming the waves. The target was a Russian warship, which came into view off the plane’s port side, dark gray against a light gray horizon.
The aircraft, an Atlantique 2 of the French Navy, was designed to hunt submarines and other enemy naval craft, but on this day its torpedo bay was empty and its only weapons were a high-resolution camera and other sophisticated surveillance instruments. The goal was to observe, and be seen observing.
“We are to show that we are here,” said Romain, a lieutenant commander and a member of the plane’s crew.
Never fully tranquil, the Baltic Sea, with a coastline heavily militarized by Northern European and Russian navies, has become an increasingly tense theater in the conflict between Moscow and the West. Later on the patrol, Russian forces attempted to jam the plane’s GPS, and at one point, another Russian warship locked on to the plane with radar, a warning that it could open fire. Russian naval ships and a submarine were visible in the sea below.
But the main reason the French naval plane was on patrol lay underwater. Three times over the past year and a half, commercial ships are suspected of having damaged critical undersea communications cables and a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. European officials fear that these were acts of sabotage, with the Kremlin viewed as the primary suspect, though finding hard evidence has proved difficult.
Image
