https://arab.news/pughc
- Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a press conference that the move was “a paradigm shift in Danish defense policy”
- Denmark’s defense ministry said in a statement it would start looking into which long-range weapons best suited the country’s needs
COPENHAGEN: Denmark said Wednesday that it would for the first time acquire “long-range precision weapons,” citing the need for deterrence capabilities in light of the threat from Russia.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a press conference that the move was “a paradigm shift in Danish defense policy.”
“For the first time, Denmark is to build up military capacity in the form of long-range precision weapons,” she told reporters.
Frederiksen added that Russia would constitute a threat to Denmark and Europe “for years to come” and a decision was made to create a “credible deterrence.”
“With these weapons, the defense forces will be able to hit targets at long range and, for example, neutralize enemy missile threats,” she added, saying the weapons could for example be either missiles or drones.
Denmark’s defense ministry said in a statement it would start looking into which long-range weapons best suited the country’s needs.
Rearmament has become a government priority under Social Democrats leader Frederiksen in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Last week, Denmark said it would invest some 58 billion kroner ($9.2 billion) in European-made air and missile defense systems.
In February, Frederiksen said Denmark would allocate an extra 50 billion kroner to defense spending over the next two years, urging the military to “buy, buy, buy.”