The Danish government has allocated funds for the procurement of coastal defense batteries.
Details of the allocated amount and the likely system have not been disclosed.
The acquisition is based on the Danish Chief of Defence’s recommendations and is intended to enhance the Danish military’s ability to control access to Danish waters.
“One of the Danish Armed Forces’ core tasks is to maintain control and freedom of action in the Danish waters, which constitute the access routes to the Baltic Sea,” Danish Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen said.
“With coastal missile batteries, we will increase the Danish Armed Forces’ combat power considerably, because the Danish internal waters can be covered from our many coastal stretches, and this will be absolutely crucial in the current security policy situation.”
The acquisition will be financed through the 50-billion Danish kroner ($7 billion) acceleration fund, which has been allocated to enhance the Danish military’s fighting capability.
The amount will be spent equally in 2025 and 2026.
Coastal Defense Capability
Although not officially announced, Denmark has selected a land mobile version of the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) for the capability, according to Danish newspaper Berlingske.
Over a month ago, Copenhagen bought the Kongsberg missile to replace the ship-based Harpoon missile for 2.1 billion kroner ($306 million).
The missile is capable of engaging both sea and land-based targets and has a range of over 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers/161 miles).
Decommissioned Coastal Battery
Denmark operated a pair of coastal anti-ship missile batteries until the coastal unit was decommissioned in 2003.
Mounted on 4-axle Scania trucks and consisting of two quadruple-launchers, the Harpoon batteries were taken from two Peder Skram-class frigates.
One of the batteries was donated to Ukraine in 2022 to help the country fight off the Russian invasion.
