Sweden’s military said Friday that a Russian drone conducted an unauthorized flight over southern Sweden earlier this week while a French aircraft carrier was docked in Malmö, calling the incident a violation of Swedish airspace after a naval vessel detected the drone launching from a Russian intelligence ship in the Öresund strait.
The military said that systems on board the Swedish ship, the HMS Rapp, took countermeasures to disrupt the drone. It said the Russian ship, the Zhigulevsk, had entered Swedish territorial waters and the Rapp approached it to monitor its transit through the strait.
The French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is in the southern Swedish city of Malmö this week as part of regular NATO exercise activities. Malmö is located on the Öresund, opposite Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen.
French military spokesperson Guillaume Vernet told The Associated Press that the drone was detected on Wednesday and handled by Swedish forces integrated into a security system around the carrier. He said Friday that the drone was more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Charles de Gaulle.
"This system showed it is robust, and this event had no impact on the activity of the aircraft carrier battle group,” Vernet said.
