Sweden sends surveillance aircraft to eastern Mediterranean

Sweden has dispatched one of its Gulfstream S102B Korpen electronic intelligence (ELINT) aircraft to the Mediterranean to operate from a UK airbase on Cyprus.

Sweden has deployed one of its two S102B Korpen electronic intelligence (ELINT) aircraft to the Mediterranean to operate from the UK's Akrotiri airbase on Cyprus. (Gulfstream)

The Korpen was tracked by open source monitoring of its ADS-B transponder as it flew down into the central Mediterranean and then landed at Royal Air Force (RAF) Akrotiri on 29 April.

A Swedish Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed the deployment to Cyprus to Jane’s on 30 April, saying that “the aircraft is on a signal reconnaissance mission in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea”.

The spokesman declined to provide further details of the mission or its duration.

An RAF source told Jane’s on 30 April that the service “often assists allied nations with fuel and stopovers, so this is nothing unusual”.

This is the second deployment of an S102B to the Mediterranean after one of the Swedish Air Force’s (SwAF's) two Korpens, which are normally assigned to 73 Signals Intelligence at Linköping in southern Sweden, operated from Cyprus for just over a week in April–May 2018.

The modified Gulfstream IVSP business jet is routinely used to fly surveillance missions over the Baltic Sea to monitor Russian activity in and around the Kaliningrad semi-exclave. The aircraft entered SwAF service in 1992, replacing a pair of veteran Tp 85 modified Caravelle airliners.