Sweden's military said Tuesday it has no plan to downsize the search for a foreign vessel that allegedly entered Swedish waters, indicating a military plan of using force to goad a suspected Russian submarine to surface.

Speaking at a news briefing, Sweden's military chief, Gen. Sverker Goeranson, said the aim of the operation is to send "a very clear signal" that Sweden is ready to stand its ground when confronted with activities that violate its borders.

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He added that the military is prepared to "force whatever it is up to the surface... with armed force, if necessary."

The general's comments mark a possible escalation of rhetoric over reports that a Russian submarine has wandered into Swedish territories.

Multiple sightings since Friday indicate an unidentified vessel spotted surfacing in the Stockholm archipelago. Gen. Goeranson said there have been other sightings since Tuesday, the National Post reported.

Swedish intelligence intercepted two radio transmissions in Russian, deemed as distressed radio calls, which had prompted authorities to launch defensive reconnaissance missions late last week, the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported.

The transmissions were identified to have originated from a point in the Stockholm archipelago, a dense spread of about 30,000 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad where the Russian naval fleet is stationed.

Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad echoed the military plan in his interview with BBC on Wednesday.

He said plans are underway for using weapons to force the suspected submarine to the surface. He also indicated that the captain of the ship that comes across the foreign vessel is authorized to use force against the intruder to stop it from whatever it is doing.

However, he pointed out that at this point the search still focuses on gathering intelligence.

Earlier in the week, the senior Swedish naval officer told reporters that the massive military search is likely to turn into a submarine hunt if the mysterious vessel is confirmed as a foreign submarine.

Tagspolitics, War Conflict, Sweden, submarine, Europe