On Sunday 28 September Denmark ordered a ban on civil drone flights from Monday to Friday this week “to eliminate the risk that enemy drones can be confused with legal drones and vice versa,” a statement issued by the transport ministry. The ban covers the period a Copenhagen European Union summit being held this week and has been introduced “after several unmanned aerial vehicles were witnessed at military facilities overnight, following a week in which drone sorties caused the temporary closures of several airports in the Nordic country,” say press reports.
Earlier in the week, reported drone sighting closed several of the country’s airports, including Copenhagen Airport,
On September 17 Denmark’s defence ministry gave more details of the new air defence measures being introduced to the country.
“The current geopolitical situation makes ground-based air defence an absolute top priority in building up the Danish Armed Forces,” said Minister for Defence Troels Lund Poulsen.”The Danish Armed Forces expect the first part of its ground-based air defence system to be operational later this year, and I am pleased that the parties to the Defence Agreement are responding with a long-term perspective on geopolitical developments,”
In June 2025, a decision was made to rapidly procure medium-range ground-based air defence systems in order to deliver operational effect as quickly as possible. Based on the military expert recommendation of the Chief of Defence, the parties to the Defence Agreement have now decided to procure a total of eight long and medium ranges systems. The rapidly procured medium-range systems will be included in this total., said the ministry.
For the long-range system, the French-Italian-manufactured SAMP/T will be procured, while for the medium-range systems, a choice will be made between one or more systems from the Norwegian-manufactured NASAMS, the German IRIS-T, and the French VL MICA, said the ministry.
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(Image: Minister for Defence Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark’s defence minister)
