Reports claim that the Russian Air Force as well as the German Air Force flew into Sweden's airspace unwittingly six times each over the same period, while Norway (5), and Monaco (3). Planes from Poland, Qatar, Albania, Bahrain, Denmark, Estonia, France, Portugal and Turkey have also been been listed as intruders. However, Sweden acknowledged that it sometimes violates others' air boundaries as well.
Ivan Konovalov, the deputy director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, says that this information has caused a sensation.
"The official procedure is very simple," Konovalov told Radio Sputnik.
"A country always needs a request to cross airspace, particularly if we are talking about military aircraft and those of NATO member countries as well. Sweden is not a member of the alliance. Therefore, it is natural that any time an American aircraft appears in its airspace without warning is a cause for scandal. And it is not about intention, but impunity," the deputy director said.
"The Swedes are looking for a scandal and it is certainly a scandalous moment for them. And the sensation is not that Americans have flown by, everyone knew about it before, but the fact that the authorities have declared about it," Konovalov claimed.
"The armed forces of Sweden have experienced reductions, budget funding has been cut and they also received no new weapons," Byden said. "And against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis, the Swedish military, like many of their European counterparts and began to lobby for increased a military budget and the size of the army. And they succeeded; the Swedish army received more than 10 billion crowns. This is a big amount of money. The same is happening now."
NATO planes violated Swedish airspace more often than Russian ones in past 5 years #WhatDoesItAllMean http://t.co/9jlXjqrOpo
— David Crouch (@davidgcrouch) October 9, 2015
He believes it is no coincidence that information about airspace violations by US aircraft has emerged so unexpectedly.
"The recent interest by mass media in the US aircraft reflects credit for the Swedish opposition because not everyone in the country — a very liberal and pacifist place — agrees that Sweden should engage in further militarization again," Konovalov said.
"Therefore, I think it is the reason of the stove piping. Prior to that, only Russian aircraft overflights have been put under scrutiny with no attention paid to the US, but apparently, the political establishment in Sweden, realized that the situation has become dangerous," the expert concluded.
