A long, interesting report on naval affairs in the Baltic. Excerpt: It is likely, for instance, that Russian submarines operate in Finnish waters.
It is perfectly well known that at least in the coastal corridor between Porkkala [the headland jutting out into the Gulf of Finland just west of Helsinki] and the island of Utö, in the outer islands south-west from Turku, there are any number of ideal hideout spots in deeper-water locations.
On the other hand, there is little sense in submarines going exactly where they are expected to go. "We have reported quite openly on our suspected sub sightings, but there has not been one absolutely open-and-shut case", says Lillqvist.
There are a number of submarine bases along the Baltic coast: the Poles keep their vessels in Gdansk, the Russians in Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg. The German submarines are stationed in Eckernförde in the Bay of Kiel, while the Swedes base theirs in Karlskrona.
Sometimes a British or Dutch submarine can slip through the Kattegat into the Baltic basin. There may also be some top-secret smaller installations along the Baltic coastline about which little or nothing is known. The Swedes, for instance, also use midget submarines. "They are even more secret. According to public record there are not many of them, but it is not something people talk about", says Lillqvist.
Because the Baltic is a shallow sea (the average depth is only 55 metres, and the maximum recorded depth is less than 500 metres), for the most part the submarines used here are coastal vessels of around 55-70 metres in length. "When the Cold War came to an end it looked as if there was no future for submarines. But they haven't gone away anywhere in the years since then", says Lillqvist.
And what about the other submarine countries in the Baltic, are they going to increase the size of their underwater fleets like the Russians are? Sweden? "I don't believe they have any such decisions on the table", Lillqvist replies.
Poland? "No decisions."
Germany? "The Germans are planning to get two new large Type 212A-class subs."
The Baltic Sea is a difficult area for submarine-hunting. "The sea-bed topography is uneven. There are a lot of blind-spot areas where a submarine can hide and remain undetected", comments Lillqvist. He opens up a chart and points to depth readings in the Gulf of Finland: the numbers range from less than ten metres to 110 metres. This is enough to allow the passage of a sub - and quite a sizable one, too - since coastal submarines generally require a depth of "a good 40 metres", but they can operate in shallower water than this.
It is a relatively common sight on the narrow international sea lanes of the Gulf of Finland to see Russian submarines travelling openly on the surface. Only they are Russian-built subs and not ones belonging to the Russian Navy. They have been assembled at the giant shipyard in St. Petersburg and are destined for export to India or China. Sea trials are routinely carried out in the Gulf. "When they are on the surface they are ships like any other. They have lights fore and aft and all", says Lillqvist.
The conditions for the crews on the Baltic fleet submarines are nothing much to write home about. The quarters are cramped in the extreme, since the whole idea is to make the vessels as compact as possible. "One way of saving space is to use the ‘warm-bunk' principle - in other words, two crew members share the same bunk. One is at work while the other is off-duty", explains Lillqvist.
On the Helsinki island of Isosaari, off-limits to civilians as a restricted military area, is a coastal artillery battery and a fixed maritime surveillance station, in a cavern blasted from the bedrock.
The underwater monitoring at the station keeps tabs on sub-surface sounds day and night. A network of passive sonar hydrophones - sound-to-electricity transducers that pick up and transmit ambient noise - has been set up on the bed of the Gulf of Finland, and the signals it captures are transmitted back to the station on Isosaari. "The locations of the hydrophone sensors are understandably not for public consumption, as they can each monitor only a relatively limited area. And they can be moved around as necessary", says Lillqvist.
Hydrophones have certainly been installed alongside the major maritime arteries and offshore from the country's harbours. If, for instance, the Russians were to know of the precise locations of the devices, it would be easy for their submarines to move around out of reach of listening ears. Suspicious sounds that are picked up in Finnish territorial waters are examined at the Navy's research establishments in Espoo and Turku. And if the technicians in Espoo suspect that the noises might be coming from a submarine, the Navy are sent to intercept the intruder.