France and NATO are protesting after a Russian missile battery locked on to a French Navy maritime patrol over the Baltic Sea last week. The incident is considered a major escalation of the normally carefully orchestrated surveillance operations carried out by both sides in areas like the strategically important Baltic. “On Wednesday night, a French Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft was the target of Russian intimidation,” France’s Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu said in a statement. “It was patrolling in international airspace over the Baltic Sea as part of a NATO operation and was illuminated by the fire-control radar of an S-400 ground-based air defense system. This aggressive Russian action is unacceptable.”
The twin turboprop was patrolling an area where a Russian ship that may be used for cutting undersea cables has been spotted. The whole area is considered intensely strategic by both NATO and the Russians. NATO has stepped up aerial surveillance in the area after undersea cables between Estonia and Finland were damaged in December, affecting Internet and telecommunications.
