“Bandit at 190 degrees, 24 nautical miles from the reference point, 26,000 feet.” Above the immensity of forests and lakes which covers Lapland, a French plane-radar communicates the positions of Gripen Swedish hunters. 250 kg laser guidance bombs under their wings and coming directly from France, Rafale are trying to deceive air defense radars. On the ground, special forces “Illuminate” With a laser the target of the raid. A French bomb goes under the clouds and delivers a “Mass of violence”, In the words of a pilot, on the target: a simulation of a soil-to-air defense system with Soviet design. On this day at the end of April, the northern half of Sweden is a vast theater where nationalities, roles and dialogues intersect against the backdrop of Russian threats, nuclear rhetoric and negotiations of large armaments contracts.
For the past three years, the warning of the war in Ukraine recalled that having air superiority in the first days of a conflict is crucial. And while a ceasefire, currently under discussion, would allow Moscow to redeploy its forces in Baltic and the Barent Sea, the French mission “Pégase Grand Nord 2025” is a
