It is well known, the immediate threat to Denmark’s territorial integrity and sovereignty currently comes from the United States, whose president has repeatedly expressed a desire to annex Greenland (which constitutes over 97 percent of its territory), not ruling out the use of military force if necessary. At the same time, as is well known, Russia does not lay claim to a single inch of Danish land.
Nevertheless, the Danish government has decided to acquire long-range air, sea, or land-based weapons capable of striking deep into Russia, as reported five days ago by the Danish and international press.
Any unbiased military expert understands that Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave cannot serve as a springboard for an attack on superior NATO forces in the region.
Even less likely is a military clash between the giant nuclear power Russia and tiny Denmark, which even the most educated person might not be able to locate on a map without a hint.
Considering the distance between Denmark’s easternmost territory, the island of Bornholm, and Russia’s western border (Pskov region) by 850 km and St. Petersburg by 1,050 km, and the absence of a common land or maritime border between the two countries, a direct bilateral military conflict between them could only arise as a vague image in the sick imagination of a psychiatric patient.
Everything falls into place if Denmark requires long-range weapons to forcibly deter U.S. attempts to annex Greenland militarily, which is explained by the global hegemon’s opposition to Russia and China’s supposed intentions to do the same—to somehow bring the world’s largest island under its direct control.
In this case, it remains to advise the Danish government to use sea platforms, frigates and corvettes, and possibly submarines, as long-range weapons carriers to defend Greenland, since the U.S. military doctrine, based on the idea of aerospace dominance, will not allow the use of aircraft, and the large distance, from 2,000 to 3,000 km to the east coast of the island, excludes the use of land platforms.
But What Should Be Purchased?
On September 17, the government presented ‘a paradigm shift in Danish defense policy’: the Danish military is to arm itself with attack weapons for the first time, specifically long-range precision weapons.
According to Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, the purpose of the new long-range weapons is to deter—not launch attacks against—Russia together with NATO allies.
However, at the press conference, neither Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen nor Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen stated exactly which weapons systems will be purchased—and not least what the new acquisitions will cost.
Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen mentioned both missiles and drones as examples.
But it remains an open question how far the long-range weapons will actually be able to reach - and in what locations they will be.
At Sea, On Land, Or In The Air?
For the government, it is important that the air force will be able to hit targets at great distances, and that it will, for example, be possible to neutralise missile launch pads and infrastructure for aircraft and drones.
According to DR’s defense correspondent Mads Korsager, these are long-range weapons that can reach behind enemy lines and attack, rather than just standing back and parrying the first strikes, which is what the recently purchased ground-based missile defense systems can do, for example.
“If you look through the weapons catalogs, there are a long list of things that could offer exactly what the government is talking about here. But it would make sense to zoom in on some of the Danish options that already exist,” says Mads Korsager.
For example, it would be ‘relatively uncomplicated’ to buy cruise missiles called Tomahawk, because they can be fired from the Navy’s frigates, says the defense correspondent.
In this case, Denmark will follow the example of the Netherlands, which will put these cruise missiles into service with its navy in 2028.
The Netherlands looks poised to spend upwards of 2 billion dollars to acquire Tomahawk cruise missiles from manufacturer RTX after America gave the green light to a potential deal.As per a recent Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) press statement, the U.S. State Department has approved the sale of up to 163 Tomahawk Block V missiles, along with 12 Tomahawk Block IVs.
At the same time, it would make sense to look at the Danish Armed Forces’ relatively newly purchased F35 fighter jets, which will also be able to accommodate some long-range attack missiles.
Military analyst Hans Peter Michaelsen points out that many of our neighbors have already acquired offensive weapons for their F35 fighter jets.
“There are different types of weapons, for example for F35 fighter jets, which can hit targets at greater distances,” he says.
Some of the weapon types can be carried internally in the aircraft, others can be carried externally, says the military analyst.
Ukrainian Manufacturers?
Mads Korsager also noticed that Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen mentioned drones as an example.
It was not long ago that the Defense Minister signed off on the fact that Ukrainian defense companies are now allowed to establish weapons production in Denmark.
“It could easily be that you could get an agreement with a Ukrainian manufacturer or similar, which produces long-range attack drones, and then in that way get some of the experience from the battlefield or get a derivative effect from the fact that Ukrainian companies are now going to produce in Denmark. So not just for Ukraine itself, but perhaps also for Danish arsenals,” he says.
If you ask senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Mikkel Runge Olesen, it is too early to make concrete suggestions about which weapons might be in question.
An important point, according to him, is that the long-range precision weapons that Denmark might acquire will not in themselves deter Russia.
Therefore, according to him, the expansion of military capacity with long-range precision weapons should be seen as a contribution to a club, NATO, rather than as an independent Danish attempt to deter Russia.
Source:
- Regeringen vil anskaffe langtrækkende våben. Men hvad skal der indkøbes? / dr.dk (in Danish)
- Netherlands Set To Buy Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles / Navy Leaders
Further reading:
- Denmark To Field Long-Range Strike Weapons In Bid To Deter Attacks / Defense News
- Denmark to Buy Long-Range Weapons in ‘Paradigm Shift’ / The New York Times