Special to WorldTribune.com

Bill Gertz, Inside the Ring, Washington Times

Large-scale NATO war games underway in Europe this week include the deployment of B-52 nuclear-capable bombers, as non-NATO member Sweden hunts for a Russian mini-submarine in its territorial waters. …

Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon strategic affairs policymaker, said Strategic Command’s deployment of bombers is a step in the right direction but should be used to demonstrate NATO’s tactical nuclear weapons simulation, in addition to conventional arms practice. “The Russians are openly making various types of nuclear threats,” Mr. Schneider said. “Under these circumstances, an extended deterrence message is necessary.” …

The Russian military’s activities have unsettled many NATO allies, especially in Eastern Europe. … Meanwhile, Swedish naval forces on Wednesday continued the hunt for a Russian submarine among the scores of islands that make up the Stockholm archipelago near the capital.

The hunt began Oct. 16 after Swedish intelligence intercepted a message from the submarine to a Russian base at the Baltic Sea port of Kaliningrad. A Swedish military official described the vessel as a mini-sub of the type used by Spetsnaz, or Russian special operations forces, for electronic spying and human agent insertion and extraction.

Sweden’s supreme military commander, Gen. Sverker Goranson, told reporters on Tuesday: “Our aim now is to force whatever it is up to the surface with armed force, if necessary,” the Swedish news outlet The Local reported.

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