'UFO' at bottom of Baltic Sea may be Nazi anti-submarine device

A former Swedish naval oficer and World War II expert Anders Autellus has said that sonar scans suggest that the "UFO" at the bottom of the Baltic Ocean could be part of a World War II Nazi anti-submarine device.

According to Autellus, the object could be the base of a device the Nazis developed as part of the war effort. Autellus said the Nazis built anti-submarine device using wire mesh to confuse submarine radar and lead the enemy craft to crash.

Autellus explains that the "UFO" structure could be an anchor or base of one of the German Nazi military devices for blocking British and Russian submarines in the area.

The Daily Mail reports that Autellus says the steel and concrete structure could be a very important World War II history find. An expert said: "The area was vital to the German war machine because most of the ball bearings for its tanks and trucks came from here. Without them the German army would have ground to a halt. This device dwarfs anything ever found before and is an important weapons discovery."

Autellus told the Swedish newspaper Expressen, that the Germans built anti-submarine devices to make navigation more difficult for Soviet submarines during World War II. He said the British also built similar structures during World War II.

Autellus said the object was possibly constructed using "double-skinned" concrete which serve as anchor for holding steel wire mesh structures designed to interfere with radar signals. He said that the wire mesh structures might have have eroded away over the years leaving the holes shown on the images provided by the Ocean X team.

Stefan Hogeborn, a professional diver and member of the Ocean X team, agrees with Autellus. He said: "It is a good candidate for the answer to this mystery. The object lies directly underneath a shipping route. It would be of enormous weight in steel and concrete." He notes, however, that the known "Nazi anti-sub anchoring devices were nowhere near as large."

According to Guerrilla Explorer, during World War II, the Nazis were in control of the Baltic Sea. But Soviet submarines would sneak into it from the Gulf of Finland. The Soviets had destroyed more than 20 German ships by 1942. In March 1943, the Nazis installed a 30 nautical mile long anti-submarine net across the Gulf of Finland, using two layers of steel mesh.

Guerrilla Explorer explains that what Autellus is saying is that the circle of the Baltic UFO was an old anchor for one of these nets with the actual net either removed or rusted away. The website says that according to Autellus's theory, "The strange 'egg shaped' hole found on the Circle could be an old attachment for the net... Also, the net could've caused the tracks... it might've dragged along the seabed at one point. Or it might've just sank and spread out."

Although Hogeborn thinks Autellus's theory is credible, Peter Lindberg, a member of the Ocean X team, expressed doubt in an interview, saying that he was 99% certain the "Circle" was a natural formation. He says the anti-submarine anchor theory doesn't explain the blackened interior of the "Circle," nor does it explain the lack of silt in the area.

Guerilla Explorer also points out that the major difficulty in Autellus's theory is that the circular anchors the Germans used were very small (see video above, at 0.33) compared with the "Circle" in the Ocean X object which is about 200 feet in diameter

Digital Journal reported that the Ocean X team investigating the underwater object say they have had difficulty conducting a close scrutiny of the object because their electrical equipment stop working when they approach within 200m.

The Daily Mail reports that according to the professional diver Hogeborn, some of the team's cameras and the team's satellite phone stop working when they are directly above or close to the object, and start working only after they have sailed away. Hogeborn said: "Anything electric out there - and the satellite phone as well - stopped working when we were above the object. And then we got away about 200 meters and it turned on again, and when we got back over the object it didn’t work."

It is uncertain, however, why an anchor for a wire mesh anti-submarine device should disable electrical equipment.

NATO flexes muscles on terror in Med Sea

The Standing NATO Maritime Group 2, consists of Turkey’s Gediz, France’s Courbet and Germany’s Bayern frigates, arrives in Istanbul. The group will head to the Med soon.

A key NATO maritime group has begun flexing its muscles in the Mediterranean as it sets off from Istanbul with a mission to combat terrorism in the sea.

The task of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 is “to give a clear message to terrorists in the region that NATO is on duty,” German Rear Adm. Thorsten Kahler told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday. Germany recently took over the leadership of the mission from Turkey.

The group will conduct its mission in the eastern Mediterranean at a time of increased tensions in the area following the recent downing of a Turkish jet by Syrian forces and continued energy exploration off Greek Cyprus’ southern coast that has upset Turkey and Turkish Cyprus.

This anti-terrorism mission is “the only Article 5 mission of NATO so far, coming from Sept. 11 of course, and [it has been] making the Mediterranean a safer place and preventing terrorism,” Kahler said.

Under Article 5 of the NATO convention, an armed attack against one of the alliance’s members is considered an attack against them all, effectively necessitating a combined response.

“Terrorism is not dead and we have to make sure that the message of NATO is understood. People and especially NATO are not willing to accept terrorism coming to the Mediterranean. We have to publish that message clearly,” Kahler said.

Rear Adm. Kahler said the group would be heading further into the Mediterranean on July 7.

“We are not telling our whole schedule, but we will stay in the region.” Asked whether there was such a lack of security in the region that an anti-terrorist mission was necessary, he said NATO did not know how many terrorists there were around the world. “So what we have to make sure is to tell the terrorists to be careful; we are here and providing security for NATO member states,” he said.

Three frigates from Turkey, France and Germany

He also said they were in Istanbul “to say thank you” to Turkey, which is one of the biggest providers of ships. The group was handed over in a ceremony held at the Aksaz Naval Base in the southwestern district of Marmaris on June 15. The maritime group consists of three frigates registered under three different countries. Turkey’s Gediz, France’s Courbet and Germany’s Bayern have 545 sailors on board in total.

The frigates also have their own choppers and helicopter landing sites, as well as ship-to-ship and ship-to-air missiles, automatic light naval guns and 100- 76- and 27-mm guns.

According to official information from the alliance, Mark 46 torpedoes, which are designed to attack high-performance submarines, are also included among the group’s armaments.

Rear Adm. Sinan Azmi Tosun, the previous Turkish commander of the group, said they had conducted operations against 10 pirate ships, arresting 175 suspected pirates

Divers claim 'Baltic UFO' shuts down all electronics within 200m

A strangely-shaped object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea has been interfering with the electrical devices of the Swedish diving team that is trying to film it. But critics are growing more skeptical about the long-running mystery.

The Swedish Ocean X treasure-hunting team first discovered a mystery object reminiscent of the Star Wars spaceship Millennium Falcon last year.

But they didn’t have the resources to investigate. Now, they have returned with top-of-the-range 3D seabed scanners and a submersible – all funded by a secret sponsor.

They are trying to film it but as soon as they get close, they are foiled.

“Anything electric out there – and the satellite phone as well – stopped working when we were above the object,” Stefan Hogerborn, the expedition’s lead diver, told Swedish channel NDTV.

“And then we got away about 200 meters and it turned on again, and when we got back over the object it didn’t work.”

The discovery itself is described as a round object resembling a “huge mushroom.” On top of it is an “egg-shaped” portal. The team said that a 300-meter trail that “can be described as a runway” stretches out from the site of the “spaceship.”

The team has not been shy to speculate about what they have seen.

“It's a meteorite or an asteroid or a volcano or a base from, say, a U-boat from the Cold War which has manufactured and placed there – or it is a UFO. Well honestly, it has to be something," says Dennis Asberg, one of the Ocean X team.

The electric interference seems to confirm that the object is by no means ordinary.

Not everyone appears convinced.

Critics have accused Ocean X, who are professional wreck-hunters, not oceanographers, of poor science and incessant attempts to court publicity in order to secure funding.

Hanumant Singh, a researcher with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, told US magazine Popular Mechanics that the original “Millennium Falcon” image that sparked the media firestorm was taken using a cheap and incorrectly-calibrated sonar.

Charles Paull, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, told the same magazine that bizarre but relatively common formations can be created by gas and fluid leaks from underneath the seabed.

As to the signal interference, it does not appear to have been a consistent phenomenon, since there appears to be extensive footage taken within several feet of the mystery object. And even if it did occur, there are plenty of underwater materials that interact with sensitive electronics.

Ocean X denies charges of publicity-seeking.

“First we thought this was only stone, but this is something else. And since no volcanic activity has ever been reported in the Baltic Sea the find becomes even stranger,” claims Peter Lindberg, the Ocean X team founder.

Ocean X is currently planning commercial trips for tourists to see the “underwater UFO” in its new submersible.

Russia’s Yaroslav Mudry Warship to Join Baltic Sea Drills

Russia's Yaroslav Mudry frigate will join the FRUKUS international naval drills that will kick off in the Baltic Sea on Sunday, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said.

The annual naval drills, which traditionally involve France, Russia, Britain and the United States, practice interoperability for future joint operations.

Britain’s York destroyer, the United States’ USS Normandy (CG-60) guided-missile cruiser and France’s destroyer De Grasse will take part in the FRUKUS 2012 exercises.

The drills will consist of several stages including joint maneuvering, repelling airstrikes and attacks of fast-speed boats, artillery practice and ship rescue exercises.

Previously called RUKUS, the exercises were launched in 1988 to promote dialogue between the Soviet Union, Britain, and the United States. The name was changed to FRUKUS in 2003, when France formally joined the group.

The Yaroslav Mudry is a Neustrashimy-class multi-purpose sea- and ocean-going ship intended to engage surface and sub-surface targets. It is equipped with powerful air defenses and is capable of rendering artillery support to ground troops.