Svenske fotoboks kameraer i russiske droner? - UAS Vison video

 

Sweden’s Stolen Speed Cameras Inside Russian Drones?

Around one hundred speed cameras around Sweden have been stolen over the last few months, according to the Swedish Transport Administration. The same type of cameras have been seen in Russian homemade drones used in the war in Ukraine, which Swedish security service say they are aware of but cannot comment on.

In a film published by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, a Russian drone that crashed in Ukraine is taken apart. In it sits a Canon camera attached with velcro to a small steel plate, the same model of the missing Swedish speed cameras, a Canon EOS 800D DSLR equipped with an 85mm lens, Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reports.

Sjekk video her av demontering fra russisk drone: https://youtu.be/1sPKSMeonxg

However, Eva Lundberg, who coordinates the traffic camera system at the Swedish Transport Administration, told the Times that the stolen cameras are actually customized Nikon DSLRs. This backs up other reports from local news outlets but complicates the theory that the cameras are being repurposed in Russian UAVs.

Lundberg says that the Nikon cameras are focused at a specific distance and “not possible to adjust,” according to the traffic camera supplier. The videos showing recovered Orlan-10 UAVs have all featured Canon DSLRs thus far, though the focusing mechanisms are fixed in a similar way: the focusing mode is set to manual and fixed with epoxy, and the focusing ring is fixed to infinity, meaning that it would provide a similar focusing profile as the DSLRs nabbed from Sweden’s speed cameras.

The Swedish security police have said they are aware of the information circulating about the connection between the speed camera thefts and the Russian home-built drones.

“But we have no opportunity to go into more detail or talk about our intelligence work”, Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg, press spokesperson at Swedish Security Service (Säpo), told Aftonbladet.

Outside Norrtälje, the police arrested a person last night for the thefts of speed cameras. In addition, several of the precious cameras have been found in a “healing center”.

Just on the road between Hedemora and Gävle, five speed cameras have been stolen in a few days. In total, over a hundred cameras have gone missing in the last month. Since they cost around a quarter of a million each, it will be an expensive business for the Swedish Transport Administration.

A total of around one hundred cameras around the country have been stolen in recent months, according to the Swedish Transport Administration.

On 27th August, eleven speed cameras disappeared between Tierp and Hargshamn. Three days later, on 30th August, Aftonbladet reported that nearly 50 speed cameras had been stolen in the Stockholm area.

Last week, at least three speed cameras were stolen along the E16 between Hofors and Falun, according to Aftonbladet and two more were reported stolen in Hedemora, according to newspaper Södra Dalarnes Tidning. The recent thefts are being investigated by the police in Dalarna and Gästrikland.

By the end of the month of August, a total of nearly 70 cameras were taken during the month of August. Police say that unlike previous instances of vandalism, where an upset motorist simply destroys the camera by knocking it over or smashing the lens, in these cases the thieves are breaking into the cabinet housing the device’s internal parts: a radar sensor to measure speed, a flash unit to illuminate a speeding subject, image processing hardware, and—the most important part to the thieves—a DSLR camera. After the cabinet is busted open, the suspects are making off with only the camera and leave behind a damaged unit that costs the Swedish Transport Administration around $22,200 apiece to repair.

 It is strange that Sweden is suddenly hit by a wave of thefts that targets speed cameras in particular. And that it is happening just as Russia is apparently being forced to improvise on the battlefield to cover up for an outdated weapons arsenal. It is strange that theft gangs find a market for stolen Canon cameras at the same time that the sanctions are reasonably increasing the component shortage in the Russian arms industry

To Sveriges Radio, Hans Liwång at the Defense Academy says that it is unlikely that the Swedish speed cameras have ended up in Russian drones. On the other hand, he believes that organized criminals have noticed the need, and that this may be why they went on a looting spree along national highway 69 and E16.

In short, Putin may not have stolen the cameras, but all indications are that the thieves hope he will buy the stolen goods.

Top Photo: Stina Stjernkvist / TT