Russian S-400 Air Defence System Engages French Atlantique 2 Aircraft Over Baltic Sea

<p >A French Navy Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft has been reported to have been illuminated by the targeting radar of a Russian<a href=" target="_blank"> S-400 long range surface to air missile system</a> on the night of January 15-16, at a time when the aircraft was flying over the Baltic Sea. The system is thought to have been located in Russia’s westernmost territory of Kaliningrad, where modern air defence systems are heavily concentrated to provide security against NATO forces that encircle it from all directions. The Atlantique 2 was reportedly conducting inspections near Swedish and Baltic waters at the time, and scanning around 200 ships. The aircraft carry heavy surveillance equipment, and can deploy both cruise missiles and torpedoes, providing them with a comparable role to the Russian Tu-142 or the American P-8. The S-400’s engagement of the French aircraft was condemned by French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu, and occurred at a time of particularly high tensions between Moscow and Paris primarily over the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian War. </p><p >Russia relies heavily on S-400 air defence systems to protect its airspace, and has<a href=" target="_blank" > combat tested</a> them extensively in the Ukrainian theatre including for <a href=" target="_blank" >very long range engagements</a> against targets up to 400 kilometres away. The systems are prized for their high mobility, the high flight performances of their missiles, and their use of multiple complementary radars operating in different wavebands to achieve high situational awareness even against low observable ‘stealth’ targets. They are in production on a much larger scale than any other long range air defence systems in the world. </p><p ><img src=" title="91N6E Mobile Radar Unit From S-400 System"></p><p >French forces were reported on January 15 to have <a href=" target="_blank">deployed</a> for a secret large scale exercise in an area resembling a stretch of the Dnieper River north of the Ukrainian capital Kiev simulating efforts to repel a Russian offensive across the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, with the activation of this northern front by Moscow having long been a major concern among Western analysts. The French government has repeatedly considered significantly escalating its ground force deployments in Ukraine, with the French paper Le Monde reporting in mid-November that the country had “reactivated” discussions with the United Kingdom on troop deployments to Ukraine. Further reports of French and other European personnel deployments being discussed emerged closely coinciding with the S-400’s engagement of the French aircraft. French President Emmanuel Macron previously <a href=" >stated</a> that his government “will do everything necessary to prevent Russia from winning this war,” stressing that deployments of ground forces were not ruled out. He highlighted at the time that much as other European states had ruled out provision of assets such as cruise missiles and fighter planes to Ukraine, only to later alter their positions, so too did he believe it was highly possible that they would come to reconsider overtly deploying ground forces in the country. </p>