In Sweden, they fear that wind farms will not allow the Patriot system to detect Russian submarines, drones and planes.
Sweden has vetoed plans to install 13 wind farms in the Baltic Sea, citing unacceptable security risks posed by the Russian Federation. This is reported by theguardian.com.
The country's Defense Minister Paul Johnson said the government had rejected plans for all but one previously planned to be installed along the east coast. The decision was made after Sweden's armed forces concluded last week that these projects would complicate the defense of the new NATO member.
“The government believes that the construction of current projects in the Baltic Sea area will lead to unacceptable consequences for the defense of Sweden,” — said Jonsson at a press conference.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000The proposed wind farms were to be located between the Åland Islands, an autonomous Finnish region between Sweden, Finland and the Sound, a strait between southern Sweden and Denmark. The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad is located only 500 km from Stockholm.
The installations could affect Sweden's defense capabilities and make it more difficult to detect submarines with sensors and radars, as well as possible air attacks, in the event of war, Jonson said. The only project to get the green light was Poseidon, which will contain up to 81 wind turbines to generate 5.5 terawatt hours per year off Stenungsund on Sweden's west coast. The country uses the Patriot system and fears that if windmills get in the way of the sensors, threat detection will be less effective.
Earlier this year, the commander of the NATO Navy said that the safety of nearly a billion people across Europe and the Nordics America is threatened by Russian attempts to attack underwater infrastructure, including wind farms.
Admiral Didier Maleter, deputy commander of NATO's combined naval forces (Marcom), told the Guardian in April: “We know that the Russians have developed many hybrid methods of underwater warfare to disrupt the European economy by damaging cables, internet cables, pipelines. Our entire “underwater” economy is at risk.”