Faced with increasing pressure from President Donald Trump to hand over the strategically important island of Greenland to the U.S., Denmark has announced plans to beef up its military presence there. Key to the $2 billion effort is the purchase of three new Arctic patrol boats, two long-range drones, and an unspecified number of new maritime patrol aircraft.
These looming acquisitions are meant to replace worn-out equipment and provide additional surveillance and sensing capabilities over and around one of the world’s largest islands. The plan was announced as Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, is at the center of an increasingly strategic race to expand control and military influence across the Arctic region. The U.S., China, and Russia are all vying for the region’s military, geostrategic, and economic benefits, and the island is already home to one of the U.S. military’s most strategically important outposts. You can read all about this history and current status of American forces on the island, as well as its overall growing strategic significance, in our recent feature linked here.
“We are facing serious security policy challenges,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said in a statement on Monday that did not specifically mention Trump’s Greenland interest. “The Danish Defense Intelligence Service assesses that the threat level in the Arctic and the North Atlantic has worsened. Therefore, we must significantly strengthen the Danish Defense presence in the regions.”
This new procurement program is part of a broader security pact between Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. These governments seek to increase their ability to patrol and gain situational awareness over a 660,000-square-mile landmass with about 27,000 miles of coastline. That presence is quite limited. In addition to the ships and aircraft, Denmark has a dozen dog sled teams to monitor an area three times the size of Texas.
One of the main lines of effort in the Danish plan is replacing the Royal Danish Navy’s four Thetis class patrol boats. Commissioned in 1991 and 1992, they are becoming increasingly unreliable, according to Danish officials.
“If you look at those ships, they are of course worn out,” Chief of the Navy Rear Adm. Henrik Ryberg told the Danish DR news outlet last year. “They are almost 40 years old. That is why I need people to start thinking about what should be next.”
The Thetis class ships, he added, “often break down and therefore cannot be operational.”
The 369-foot-long vessels, which displace 3,500 tons, have a maximum speed of 20 knots when working and can operate for about 8,500 nautical miles. Designed for the harsh Arctic conditions, they feature double-skinned hulls up to two meters above the waterline and can sustain damage up to eight meters in length without endangering stability. The hulls have ice-breaking bows and stern lines suitable for operations in ice with only one propeller.
These ships are armed with one Otobreda 76 mm Super Rapid main gun, one or two Oerlikon 20 mm guns, and depth charge dispensers. They also embark with an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter.
The three new Arctic ships Denmark seeks “will be able to more effectively and flexibly solve tasks in Greenland and carry capabilities such as helicopters and drones,” Poulsen stated. He did not provide details about what specifications he seeks or the timeline for delivery. We reached out to the Danish Defense Ministry for additional details and will update this story with any pertinent details.
For maritime patrol, inspection and transport, Denmark relies on four Canadair CL-604 Challenger bizjet aircraft. The CL-604s are militarized variants of the Bombardier Challenger 604 with saddle tanks to enhanced fuel capacity, a new undercarriage to support higher takeoff and landing weights, structural improvements to the wings and tail, as well as a modern Rockwell Collins Pro Line 4 avionics system. A decade ago, Denmark embarked on a midlife upgrade program that included a new downlink and a multirole radar capable of carrying out surface surveillance, weather monitoring and oil slick detection.
“The Challenger aircraft are near the end of their operational lifespan and need to be replaced,” the Danish Defense Ministry stated. “The opening of new airports across Greenland means new opportunities for establishing partnerships with airlines regarding inspection, surveillance, and transportation.”
The details of the funding and procurement schedule for the replacement aircraft are being worked out with officials from the Faroe Islands and Greenland as part of a broader security agreement, the Danish MoD explained.
Denmark also wants two new “long-range drones with advanced image acquisition capacity that can monitor large areas over long distances and obtain detailed images,” Poulsen explained. He did not say what kinds of drones, what kind of sensors or when they would be procured or fielded.
While Denmark has been seeking a lot of these capabilities for several years, the plan unveiled Monday comes in the wake of increasingly contentious relations between Trump and the Danish government over the future of Greenland.
Even before he was inaugurated, Trump reportedly berated Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, with the former insisting “he wanted the United States to take over Greenland,” The New York Times reported. That was after he refused to rule out military or economic coercion to bring Greenland and the Panama Canal under U.S. control during a press conference on Jan. 8.
“I can’t assure you on either of those two,” Trump told reporters. “But I can say this, we need them for economic security.”
The same day, Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., touched down in Greenland for what was described as a tourist visit, during which he reportedly handed out hats bearing the slogan ‘Make Greenland Great Again.’
Meanwhile, Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said the strategy is bigger than Greenland itself.
“This is about the Arctic,” he said. “You have Russia that is trying to become king.”
Frederiksen earlier this month ruled out the possibility of coming to a deal with the United States that would see Greenland handed over. Instead, the future of the territory would be decided by its people. “Greenland is not for sale,” Frederiksen said.
The U.S., as we have previously reported, already has a significant military presence in Greenland. That includes the former Thule Air Base, which was turned over to the U.S. Space Force in 2020 and renamed Pituffik Space Base in 2023. Overseen by the Space Force’s 821st Space Base Group, its mission is “to enable force projection, space superiority, and scientific research in the Arctic region for our nation and allies through integrated base support and defense operations,” according to the Space Force.
With Pituffik Space Base, the 821st Space Base Group is responsible for the U.S. military’s northernmost installation. Beyond the airfield, the massive radar system used for early warning and tracking of ballistic missiles is of extreme strategic importance to the United States.
Meanwhile, Russia has placed a huge strategic importance on the Arctic, with many investments in the region. In recent years, Moscow has been heavily committed to increasing its air and naval power in the Arctic Circle and has been establishing new bases in the region, as well as reactivating ones that fell into disuse after the Cold War. China has also been expanding its presence in the Arctic.
These two nations have also been stepping up their joint military operations in the Arctic region. Last July, two Chinese H-6 bombers and a pair of Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers flew through a portion of the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) around Alaska. It marked the first time China’s H-6s operated in that part of the world.
Beyond the military implications of this region are potential new shipping routes and mineral resources that will become available as the ice continues to melt. These factors are largely perpetuating the looming struggle for control over wide swathes of the Arctic region.
Amid all this, Denmark is seeking European help in opposing Trump’s Greenland quest.
“Frederiksen dashed between Berlin, Brussels and Paris on Tuesday to shore up support in the face of Trump’s increasingly aggressive overtures toward the territory,” Politico noted on Tuesday. Trump’s interest in Greenland will likely be a big part of an informal meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on Feb. 3, Politico reported, citing several people familiar with the plans.
Buying a few new ships, aircraft and drones is clearly no game-changer in Denmark’s efforts to maintain control over Greenland. The announcement of the plan, however, seems to be another indication that it has no intention of giving up the island.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com