Sweden Confirms It Launched A Second Hunt For A Suspected Russian Submarine In October

Sweden's military spokesman confirmed on Jan. 11 that the country had carried out a second search for a suspected Russian submarine just shortly after a high-profile sub hunt concluded in late October.

Military spokesman Jesper Tengroth confirmed that Sweden carried out a second search for a Russian submarine on Oct. 31, 2014. This second search occurred just a week after Sweden called off a failed search for a suspected Russian submarine that had infiltrated Swedish waters off the Stockholm Archipelago.

The first search was Sweden's largest military operation since the Cold War ended. The search ultimately did not manage to capture the suspected vessel. Sweden never named the vessel as Russian - although Swedish defense experts said it almost certainly did belong to Moscow.

The second search also failed at capturing the presumed Russian submarine. In this search, Sweden secretly deployed its submarine-hunting corvette, the CMS Malmo.

The news of a second submarine hunt in Sweden coincides with a joint UK-US anti-submarine operation taking place off of the Scottish coast.

The British Ministry of Defense called the US for assistance after spotting a suspected Russian submarine last week. The submarine may have been trying to track one of Britain's Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines.

News of these two additional submarine infiltrations follows a general Russian trend of pushing the boundaries of its neighbors' territorial sovereignty following the crisis in Ukraine.

Between March and November 2014, Moscow and its opponents had 40 close military encounters due to Russian aerial incursions into Western airspace. Of those 40 encounters, 11 were classified as "serious incidents with escalation risk" by the European Leadership Network.