Sweden builds a new Baltic Sea surveillance system

Published 20 August 2009

After the mysterious disappearing of a Maltese-flagged cargo ship with a Russian crew in Swedish waters, Sweden decides to deploy a maritime surveillance system which will become operational in October

Piracy spreads to the north. The Swedish coast guard says it has to create a new system of surveillance in the Baltic Sea following the mysterious disappearance in Swedish waters of a Maltese-flagged ship with a Russian crew, carrying timber from Finland to Algeria.

The Russian navy found the ship Arctic Sea three weeks later off the Cape Verde islands and arrested eight Russian, Estonian, and Latvian hijackers onboard. The Swedish coast guard and police say they informed that something was happening to the ship then between the Swedish Baltic islands of Gotland and Öland, but that it disappeared into international waters before they could react.

The new system is to be jointly run by ten authorities here and be in operation by October.