Unknown submarine sighted in Sweden

The defense is investigating whether a foreign submarine slipped through the Stockholm archipelago for almost three weeks ago. A family took pictures of the villa Lakeside in Saltsjöbaden on something that looks like a large vehicle, alerted the Armed Forces and then heard about the incident.

Defence Information Officer Marie Tisäter confirms to Aftonbladet, which published the pictures, that history will be investigated. - This investigation is going on is completed in about two months, "she says.

Source (translated using google): GP.se (Swedish newspaper/site)

I find it somewhat unsettling, any submarine experts out there who might be able to identify it (in spite of the minimal amount of info in the picture...)?

reply to post by Edews


I don't know but a good bet is Russian!

hmmm Loch ness Monster


Could just be a wave?

reply to post by Edews



could be one of these russian subs, they work in that area

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

baltic fleet

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by Alpal
hmmm Loch ness Monster

Could just be a wave?

Maybe, that'd be a nice conclusion to the 2 month investigation by the navy "it was... a wave".

There's some accounts by the family in the link below... I used google again but it kind of became gibberish (in my opinion, try it yourselves) so this is just me summing it up:

As soon as Hanna Harge saw it she thought that it was a sub, so did her two sons. She also says that the sub was moving in a southeast direction at about 5 knots.

DN.se (another swedish newspaper/site)

this thing is massive...if it is a submarine, i do not detect a prominent conning tower scaled to the overall length of the object. the examples given of any of "todays" subs, do not physically conform to this particualr shape...interesting

Oh come on. A submarine surfaced. And nobody in defense ministry knows about it?
So either Swedish military (and Navy in general) are non-existant, or it is known to Swedish officials but one of those things general public should not hear about.
By the way - Sweden makes their own submarines. And there is new class being developed. Just saying.

Originally posted by ZeroKnowledge
Oh come on. A submarine surfaced. And nobody in defense ministry knows about it?
So either Swedish military (and Navy in general) are non-existant, or it is known to Swedish officials but one of those things general public should not hear about.
By the way - Sweden makes their own submarines. And there is new class being developed. Just saying.

Ya it sounds slightly fishy (...) to me too. I had no idea that they were developing a new kind of sub, i guess it could be possible that they were testing it... Although i don't see why they would test in a populated area.

Here's a link to where it happened, the marker is where the witnesses saw the sub from.

Google maps

Look at this Map That's where the sub was, the moment they took the pic.
pretty stealthy, how did it pass on undetected ?:S

I guess Sweden has its supply of coc aine from Colombia now.

It depends on which way is front. Looking at the picture, if it's heading towards the right, then it's NOT Russian. Their conning towers are towards the rear of the vessel (on subs of that apparent size, of course you can't estimate the size of the thing from the picture unless you're a Swede and know the relative size of that river or whatever). US subs have the conning tower towards the bow of the vessel so, as speculated above, if it IS heading to the right of the photo and the little "black box" sticking partially above the water is a conning tower then it could be US. Without the conning tower being more above water it's hard to say. The US Ohio class would fit the overall silhouette and if the tower were higher above the waterline you could say for sure since the diving planes are located on the towers of US subs where as the Russian Typhoon has the bow planes on the bow (obviously right?...lol) due to the aft-ward location of the tower relative to the size of the vessel.

My personal opinion is that it's not a Russian Typhoon because the conning tower would be much bigger and actually closer to the center than the box on the silhouette in the pic. It looks much closer to a US Ohio class ballistic missile sub.

I don't know much about other countries' subs so I can't rule out European or Asian subs.

As for other subs in the US/Russian arsenals, the Los Angeles class attack sub is much smaller than the silhouette. A Russian Oscar is "relatively" a smaller Typhoon and an Akula attack sub is even smaller with a more centered conning tower. Russian diesel subs are even smaller still.

Based on what I do know, I'd guess it was American (if I HAD to hazard a guess that is). I can't post pics for comparison while I'm at work but when I get home I'll try and remember to do so.

--Apex

if it was a submarine to see the hull like in the picture mabey half a meter under the water the escape hatch would be sticking out the top pluss wer it is the water will be shallow and submarines only do that if docking
or leaveing and if its not swedish wich i would of thought it wasnt considering thers a inquest then the only explanation is U.S.O

Looking at the map Thelindvall provided:
MAP
I don't know much about submarine operations, but that area is reported (on that map) to range to a maximum depth of 47meters ~ (150 ft.). Could a full sized sub even operate submerged in shallows like that?
I can imagine it chugging along the surface just fine, even rolling along with the conning tower poking out. But sneaking in fully submerged?
Not to mention to get into that space, it would have to pass through several narrower channels, which would seem (from the very rough bathymetry) to most likely be even shallower.

Anyone speculate a guess?

reply to post by Edews


That has to be the clearest photo of a USO I have ever seen!

Debunk that!

It's not a submarine. It also looks like the structure on the right end of it may have been photoshopped in. I have seen floating rafts of seaweed and/or kelp that could be mistaken for a hull from a distance. It also occurs to me it could have been an oil slick if the only part clearly above water was photoshopped in. It's hard to determine scale from the photo but it looks like it was pretty big.

Osama Bin Laden?

Russian submarine for comparison. Hope link works.

imageshack.us...

reply to post by wcitizen



I had to give that a star haha!

Like someone else mentioned, the lack of a tower is very interesting. It does have a small protrusion towards the back (front?) but way smaller than anything I've ever seen.

If it is a sub, it's definitely a new model of some sort. The tower on all known subs are huge compared to that tiny little thing.

Honestly I can't see anything in the picture that would lead me to say for sure it's a sub. It's just a big black splotch on the screen basically. Kind of odd.

Probably the Russians.. With the new economiuc wealth starting to trickle in they have returned to several cold war style tactics. They have resumed long range bomber patrols, and have caused some intercepts in Canadian, US and UK airspace.

This is probably the return of their subs.

They are reminding the World that while they may have been out of it the last 2 decades, they are back.

They have started to modernize their military, and have begun testing of their 4th and 5th generation aircraft.

Nothing new, and chances are nothing dangerous... just the typical games of cat and mouse.

I still think that it is new Swedish sub (a-26 for now) being given initial tests. Swedes have to know who runs in their waters.
Tower does look similar, and it is in front. Though it is hard to say due to the distance. And it is relatively small sub so i doubt that shallow water is a problem.
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