Speed cameras stolen from Sweden may end up in Russian drones: Report
Speed cameras all over Sweden is disappearing at an alarming rate. More than 160 cameras have been stolen from rural roads, according to New York Times, with most thefts occurring between midnight and 3am. The authorities are puzzled by the issue. After all, who—except some kind of vigilante pro-speeder—would want to go through all that effort to steal something with virtually no resale value?
As it turns out, one possibility is that the stolen cameras may find a second life inside Russian surveillance drones used in Ukraine. Local news reports indicates that the Security Police has information that could potentially link the speed camera thefts to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukrainealthough the Swedish government has so far been careful to avoid making any definitive statements in that regard.
On August 27, eleven cameras disappeared overnight on a stretch of county road in Sweden. Three days later on August 30, another 30 were stolen. At the end of the month, a total of nearly 70 cameras were taken during the month of August. Police say that unlike previous cases of vandalism, where an irate motorist simply destroys the camera by knocking it over or smashing the lens, in these cases the thieves break into the cabinet that contains the device’s internals: a radar sensor for measuring speed, a flash unit to illuminate a subject in motion, imaging hardware and – the most important part for thieves – a DSLR camera. After the cabinet is blown up, the suspects make off with just the camera, leaving behind a damaged unit that costs the Swedish Transport Administration about $22,200 each to repair.
According to the Swedish newspaper The evening paper, the same cameras are found inside custom low-tech Russian drones used in surveillance and attacks against Ukraine. In one case, one crashed Russian Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicle can be seen with a Canon EOS 800D DSLR equipped with an 85 mm lens. The camera housing is rigged to a metal plate with a series of cables attached to it, with the lens protruding through the drone’s skin.
However, that is what Eva Lundberg, who coordinates the traffic camera system at the Swedish Transport Administration, told us the times that the stolen cameras are actually custom Nikon DSLRs. This backs up other reports from local news channels but complicates the theory that the cameras are being reused in Russian UAVs.
Lundberg says the Nikon cameras are focused at a specific distance and “not adjustable,” according to the traffic camera supplier. The videos showing restored Orlan-10 UAVs have all had Canon DSLRs so far, although the focus mechanisms are fixed in a similar way: the focus mode is set to manual and fixed with epoxy, and the focus ring is fixed to infinity, meaning it would give a similar focusing profile like the DSLR cameras captured from Sweden’s speed cameras.
Whether or not the stolen speed cameras are used for Russia’s UAVs is still up in the air. If the cameras aren’t headed to Russia for use in its drones, where might they go? That information may soon become known to the police, which one person – a Swedish citizen – was arrested in connection with the thefts Friday night.
However, if the theory of reusing these DSLRs in Russian UAVs is correct, it could signal that the Russian military may switch to whatever equipment it can get its hands on Canon officially stopped the sale and supply of its products to Russia in March 2022 as a response to the Ukraine conflict. Constructing new UAVs with off-the-shelf parts is likely to become more difficult for Russia as sanctions continue to take their toll, especially given its significant loss rate of around 50 units between February and May.
Do you have a tip or a question for the author? Contact them directly: [email protected]