Russian Antonov An-30 spy plane violates Danish and Swedish airspaces.

Authorities from both Denmark and Sweden reported that an Antonov An-30 Clank entered Danish airspace on Friday evening, April 29, east of the Danish Baltic island of Bornholm then entered Swedish airspace.

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 Antonov An-30 pictured at the time the Open Skies agreement was still in force (Picture source: Wikipedia)

As reported by thelocal.dk, the Russian ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, has been summoned for a talk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday, May 2, after a Russian plane violated Danish airspace on Friday, according to Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod: “We are in a special situation across the whole of Europe. That is why, of course, it is really serious when we see Russia violating our airspace. Therefore we have called in the Ambassador so that we can make that view clear to Russia,” Kofod reiterated to newswire Ritzau.

On Friday, April 29, a Russian Antonov An-30 was flying east of Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic, before it headed towards Swedish territory. “It is completely unacceptable and extremely worrying in the current situation”, Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod wrote on Twitter on Sunday, May 1. Danish F-16 fighter jets countered the incursion and the plane then left Danish airspace.

The plane was also briefly in Swedish airspace. As Opex360 reports, according to the explanations given by General Carl-Johan Edström, the head of the Swedish Air Force, the Russian An-30 was first spotted while flying east of the island. Danish from Bornholm. Then he set sail for southern Sweden, more precisely for the county of Blekinge. Then, having skirted Swedish airspace for “some time”, he made an incursion there. His crew was then contacted on an emergency frequency, whereupon he turned south and left the area heading east. The incident lasted less than a minute. If the violation of March 2 had been deemed "intentional", the Swedish military authorities want to be more cautious for that committed by this An-30: "We can't say anything about that at this time. An analysis is underway to determine what the reasons may be,” said Therese Fagerstedt, spokeswoman for the Swedish general staff. However, General Edström felt that, given the current tensions, it is "completely irresponsible and unprofessional to fly so close to our borders".

The airspace violation triggered swift reactions in Sweden, where Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist told local media that such action was “unprofessional” and “inappropriate” considering heightened tensions in the region due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. So, the Swedish Foreign ministry also said the Russian ambassador would be summoned in Stockholm.

One may assume that this kind of violation takes place - and might be repeated - in the framework of the expected decision from Finland and Sweden to join NATO, as these countries understandably fear the aggressive attitude of their Russian neighbor. Russia already signalled that Sweden and Finland should consider the consequences of such a move on bilateral relations and Europe’s overall security architecture.

The Antonov An-30 (NATO reporting name: Clank), is a development of the An-24 designed for aerial cartography.The first aerial survey version of the Antonov An-24 was designed by the Beriev OKB and designated An-24FK. The FK stood for fotokartograficheskiy (photo mapping). The prototype was converted from a production An-24A at Beriev's No. 49 construction shop in 1966. The An-24FK made its first flight on 21 August 1967, with state acceptance trials being completed in 1970 and civil certification completed in 1974. Redesignated An-30, production began in 1971 at the Antonov factory. 123 production An-30s were manufactured between 1971 and 1980 in Kyiv in two main versions.

The Antonov An-30 is fitted with an entirely new fuselage forward of frame 11. The fuselage nose is extensively glazed, reminiscent of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress of WW2 and the Korean War. Housed within the new nose section are the navigator and precise navigational equipment, including an optical sight for ensuring the accuracy of aerial photography. To enable accurate and repeatable survey flights, standard equipment for the An-30 included computer flight path control technology. This additional equipment replaced the radar on the An-24. The positioning of the new navigational equipment required the flight deck to be raised by 41 cm in comparison to the An-24, giving the aircraft its other main feature, a hump containing the cockpit.

The radio operator and flight engineer sat in the first cabin aft of and below the flight deck. The mission equipment was located further aft, in a cabin featuring five camera windows on the floor. Each camera window could be closed with covers to protect the glass panels. The covers were located in special fairings protruding from the fuselage underside. In the normal aerial photography role, four or five cameras were carried aboard. Three cameras were mounted vertically, intended for mapping purposes. The remaining two cameras were pointed at an angle of 28° on each side of the aircraft, for oblique photography. The same fuselage compartment contained workstations for two camera operators and a crew rest area.

The aircraft's cameras could be used between 2,000 and 7,000 m (6,500 and 23,000 ft) and the scale of the resultant photographs was between 1:200,000 and 1:15,000,000. The aircraft was supplied with four or five cameras.

The An-30 was powered by two Ivchenko AI-24VT turboprops with a takeoff rating of 2,820 ehp.

Between 1971 and 1980 a total of 115 aircraft were built.

An-30s completely mapped Afghanistan in 1982, with one shot down by a MANPADS during an aerial photography flight in the Kabul area south of the Panjshir Valley on 11 March 1985. Cuban An-30s saw active service in Angola in 1987.

On 22 April 2014, a Ukrainian An-30 was hit by pro-Russian separatists' small-arms fire while on a surveillance mission over the town of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine. The plane landed safely with minor damage. On 6 June 2014, a Ukrainian An-30B was shot down near the city of Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine, reportedly by a MANPADS fired by local separatists.