The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was potentially targeted on its first ever visit to Sweden by a drone “probably” launched by a passing Russian military vessel, the Swedish defense ministry said Friday. Photo courtesy U.S. Navy
The Swedish military intercepted a drone headed toward France’s nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier that was docked in Malmo ahead of NATO exercises in the region and the North Atlantic.
Defense Minister Pal Jonson said there was likely a “strong link” between the drone, which the Swedish forces countered with electronic warfare measures after the French military spotted it about 7 nautical miles out on Thursday, and a Russian naval vessel transiting from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea via the Oresund Strait.
“The Armed Forces acted quickly and decisively in jamming the drone. Contact with the drone was subsequently lost, and its current status is unknown,” the Swedish military told the public service broadcast network, SVT.
Russia denied having anything to do with the incident with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling the allegations “absurd.”
Paris, with its defense minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, due on board the Charles de Gaulle on Friday, dismissed the incident, saying it proved the “robustness” of Sweden’s defenses and had not affected the mission.
Gen. Dominique Trinquand, former chief of France’s military mission to the United Nations, told French media he wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that the drone was connected to intelligence operations being carried out in the area by Russia.
“That they would do so while the French aircraft carrier is deployed there is certainly a strategic signal,” he said.
The Charles de Gaulle heads up the French Navy’s flagship carrier strike force but is under the protection of the militaries of France’s partners whenever it is in their territorial waters.
The carrier is in Sweden for La Fayette ’26, a series of NATO exercises to counter a so-called hybrid war that Russia has been waging for several years and which has escalated since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Thursday’s incident came after months of reports of unidentified drones near military facilities, disruption to civil aviation, including several instances in Scandinavian and Baltic nations that forced the closure of airports in Copenhagen and Oslo, and drone incursions into European airspace.
Overflight by drones in December of France’s base for its Triomphant submarine-launched nuclear-missile deterrent in Brittany remains under investigation.
Historic February moments through the years
Former South African president Nelson Mandela speaks to reporters outside of the White House in Washington on October 21, 1999. Mandela was famously released from prison in South Africa on February 11, 1990. Photo by Joel Rennich/UPI | License Photo
