PARIS — Denmark will invest about 4 billion Danish kroner (US$615 million) through 2033 in the country’s Navy and Home Guard fleets, aiming to improve surveillance and defense of the country’s home waters, the government said.
The plans include the acquisition of four multifunctional environmental-protection and minelaying vessels, a ship with drones and sonar systems to monitor underwater activity, as well as 21 new vessels for the Naval Home Guard, Defense Minister Troels Lund Poelsen said at a press conference in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
The plan was backed by the three-party coalition government and six of the eight other parties in parliament. The parties also agreed on long-term investments in additional capabilities, including air-defense frigates, as well as a decision later this year to buy more Arctic vessels, with details still to be determined.
The tasks of the four environmental and minelaying vessels will include surveillance as well as clean-up of chemical and oil spills. Denmark will additionally boost the Navy’s ability to monitor both above and under water with a program to develop autonomous units such as underwater drones, according to Lund Poelsen.
The government had sketched the outlines of its long-term fleet plan in March, with Lund Poelsen saying the Danish frigate fleet still had a decade in it, with the new naval plan preparing the future acquisition of the next generation of vessels.
While the Navy’s current frigates still have “good years” left, new investments have to be made, and due diligence calls for agreement on a new fleet plan before the decision to buy new frigates, Lund Poelsen said. He said those decisions will be made when NATO’s capability goals are finalized in June.
Lund Poelsen said “it’s no secret” that the next round of naval investment will involve “a very large number of billions,” without providing details.
The Danish government in February agreed to allocate an additional 50 billion kroner to defense over the coming two years, boosting defense spending to more than 3% of GDP in 2025 and 2026.
There is a political ambition for the future frigates and the Arctic vessels to be built in Denmark, though there is no decision on that yet, according to the defense minister. Lund Poelsen said he believes Denmark can do more to cooperate with other NATO countries with regards to participating in their frigate capacity-expansion programs.
Denmark currently operates three frigates in the Iver Huitfeldt class, the first of which entered service in 2012. The 139-meter vessels, designed for air defense, displace 6,645 tons and are equipped with a 32-cell Mk 41 vertical missile launcher. The Danish Navy also operates two Absalon-class anti-submarine warfare frigates with a multi-purpose deck, which entered service in 2005.
The Danish Navy has been using a modular payload system called Standard Flex since the 1990s, allowing vessels to swap out containerized weapons or systems for different missions or roles.
The lead vessel in the Iver Huitfeldt class infamously experienced a malfunction of critical weapon and sensor systems on deployment in the Red Sea in 2024, resulting in Lund Poelsen firing Denmark’s chief of defense for reportedly failing to disclose the issues aboard the frigate.
The Niels Juel, a sister ship of the Iver Huitfeldt, suffered a separate incident while docked in April last year, with the crew unable to deactivate the booster of a Harpoon missile during testing.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
