Remember the time they sank a U.S. aircraft carrier?
Sweden pulled out of the joint investigation of the pipeline explosions. It is widely assumed they are not turning over the information they gathered to cover-up for someone. Since it is unlikely they would cover up for Russia if Moscow had sabotaged their own pipe the thinking is that they are covering for the U.S.
But what if Sweden did it? They have some very quiet submarines. More after the jump.
First though, from Asia Times, October 23:
Sweden’s A26 sub offers sea warfare insights to China
Sub’s Multi-Mission Portal enables launch of autonomous or remote-operated underwater vehicles China would likely use to blockade Taiwan
Sweden’s Saab is getting up to speed in building the next generation of A26 Blekinge-class conventional submarines (SSK), with a forward-looking design that anticipates capability requirements for future seafloor warfare.
This month, Naval News reported that Saab laid the keel of the first A26 SSK for the Royal Swedish Navy, the soon-to-be RSwN Blekinge, at Karlskrona, southern Sweden in late June.
The report said that Sweden plans to build two Blekinge subs, expected to be delivered in 2027 and 2028, respectively. However, the Swedish Navy is contemplating whether five new boats would be enough for its security needs since its three Gotland SSKs will need to be replaced in the 2030s.
The A26 prominently features a unique Multi-Mission Portal (MMP), or an enlarged torpedo tube in the middle of the submarine. The MMP can accommodate swimmers, diving equipment, and manned and unmanned submersibles for special missions....
....MUCH MORE
The Swedes wouldn't have needed anything that fancy to take care of a couple pipelines, just something quiet that no one would pick up approaching the pipe. And that they have, right now. As we noted in 2020:
....And just to make things interesting maybe the U.S. could rent a couple of those super-quiet little Swedish subs:
In 2005, the USS Ronald Reagan met its match in the form of a single, diesel-powered Swedish submarine. During war games, the plucky submarine was able to sneak through the passive sonar defenses.
Just don't mention the herring. Also from 2020: "For 15 Years Sweden Thought Enemy Submarines Were Invading Its Territory. It Turned Out To Be Herring Farts"
One of the scientists who broke the case, Magnus Wahlberg, was
awarded the igNobel Prize in Biology by Harvard's Journal of Improbable
Research (shared with a team from Scotland who independently came to
similar conclusions as to what the Herring were up to.)
https://www.improbable.com/about/people/MagnusWahlberg.html
From the 2004 awards: https://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2004:
BIOLOGY: Ben Wilson of the University of British Columbia, Lawrence Dill of Simon Fraser University [Canada], Robert Batty of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Magnus Whalberg of the University of Aarhus [Denmark], and Hakan Westerberg of Sweden’s National Board of Fisheries, for showing that herrings apparently communicate by farting.
REFERENCE: “Sounds Produced by Herring (Clupea harengus) Bubble Release,” Magnus Wahlberg and Håkan Westerberg, Aquatic Living Resources, vol. 16, 2003, pp. 271-5.
REFERENCE: “Pacific and Atlantic Herring Produce Burst Pulse Sounds,” Ben Wilson, Robert S. Batty and Lawrence M. Dill, Biology Letters, vol. 271, 2003, pp. S95-S97.
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Lawrence Dill, Robert Batty, Magnus Whalberg, Hakan Westerberg.
Quite amazing that two separate teams were working on the problem and came to the same conclusion. Have I ever mentioned simultaneous discovery? (Why yes, yes I have):
There is a phenomena is science known as simultaneous discovery or simultaneous invention. The two most famous examples are probably calculus and evolution but there are dozens if not hundreds of cases.