Drone attacks leave Denmark on display

Drone incidents at airports and military bases of all Jutland, in western Denmark, have not caused any damage or damage – and yet they have exposed the country’s defenses as vulnerable to attacks.

At a hybrid war period, there is a feeling of embarrassment in Denmark – a founding member of the Organization Organization of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) – that its critical infrastructure has become so vulnerable.

Aalborg and Billund airports had to close on Wednesday evening, while drones were spotted in Esbjerg, Sonderborg and Skrydstrup. Aalborg also serves as a military base and Skrydstrup houses some of the Air Force F-35 and F-16 war planes. Drones were also seen on Jutland Dracoon Regiment in Holstebro.

Since then, there have been police reports investigating drone activities around Denmark oil and gas platforms in the North Sea, and near the central port of Korsor.

Aalborg airport briefly closed Thursday evening following another alleged drone observation, national media announced on Friday.

The question now faced with the country’s army is how to react.

None of the drones were shot – the defense leaders decided that it was safer not to do so, but it is not a long -term solution.

Denmark is of course not alone.

Norway, Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania have all been subjected to a hybrid war in recent weeks. All are on the eastern flank of NATO.

Estonia and Poland both invoked article 4 of NATO this month after Russian war planes entered Estonian airspace for 12 minutes, and around 20 Russian drones violated Polish airspace and were slaughtered.

Denmark said that a “professional actor” was responsible for drone attacks he had seen and stayed there.

Article 4 brings together the defensive alliance for consultation when “territorial integrity, political independence or the security of a member … is threatened”.

The Danish government is currently estimating the opportunity to invoke it too.

It is a serious moment for Denmark, and its best brass – government, defense and police – quickly called a press conference where the Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen said that he seemed “systematic”, due to the number of targeted locations.

“This is what I would define as a hybrid attack,” he said, without attributing the blame because they have no concrete evidence.

Russia has not been excluded – something that Prime Minister puts Frederiksen clearly said after the Drone’s disruption on Monday evening on Copenhagen.

Moscow “firmly rejects” any involvement and his embassy in Copenhagen denounced incidents as a “staging provocation”.

However, Frederiksen does not doubt the risk and said that last week that Russia “would be a threat to Europe and Denmark for the years to come.”

No one had any harm yet, mainly because the drones were left to cover their course.

Defense chief Michael Hyldgaard simply said, “When you shoot something in the air, something comes back too.”

An example of this was when the roof of a house was destroyed in Wyryki, in eastern Poland, would have been pulled by a missile pulled by a NATO jet.

Jutland police said they would try to drop the drones if it could be done safely, and the soldiers clearly indicated that he was ready to do so in relation to military facilities, depending on “the specific evaluation of threats and possible consequences of withdrawal”.

But this has not happened so far.

Kjeld Jensen, from the University of Southern Denmark Drone Center, accepts that it is embarrassing that the vulnerabilities of Denmark were exposed – but he thinks that the police and the military acted in an appropriate manner.

“I would not shoot drones if they are above an urban area or an airport,” he says, “because they have to go down, and there would be other fuel or batteries creating a fire, which is also a risk that you need to take into account.”

“You must decide whether it is more dangerous than letting it fly,” explains Peter Viggo Jakobsen, of the Royal Danish Defense College. “But this is not a lasting situation and we must offer ideas.”

The cautious approach to Denmark is clearly different from that of Poland, because the Russian drone foams there on September 10.

This week, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski warned Moscow to the UN: “If another missile or plane crosses our territory without authorization, intentionally or by accident, and is shot dead and his wreck falls on NATO territory, do not come here to complain. You were warned.”

What Denmark and many of its neighbors are missing is the type of tool they need to drop drones.

The government has recently announced plans for an “integrated diaper defense”, as well as investments in long -term clarification to strike the enemy territory.

But this is not very useful for the defenses of Denmark at the moment.

“From the point of view of engineering, it is so much easier to build a drone that can steal than build something that can prevent them from flying,” said Jensen, from South Denmark University.

On Friday, Denmark will join several NATO and Ukraine allies to discuss the idea of ​​erection of a “drone wall”, proposed by the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, to protect the eastern borders of the EU.

The drones they will talk about are more likely to focus on the type of armed weapons that have reached Polish airspace rather than unarmed drones with lively lights over Denmark.

The goal is to create an early detection system, although again, it may not have helped Denmark during the night if drones spotted on Jutland were launched locally.

If Russia was behind the last Drone disturbances, despite its refusals, according to hybrid war standards, this operation seems to have been a success.

The airports were briefly closed, Denmark military sites were made to appear vulnerable and higher ministers were forced to give a precipitated press conference to appease public concerns.

But he gave Danes a new awakening. The police increased his level of crisis and the Minister of Defense spoke of the country in the face of a new reality.