Nothing is going well for the Danish Armies. Although only having a relatively small budget, with Copenhagen only devoting, in 2024, 1,5% of its GDP to its defense effort, the Danish armies were, until now, considered efficient and professional, at least within NATO.
Unlike certain other European countries, they had, in fact, demonstrated qualities during joint operations in the past. Furthermore, if they are compact in terms of format, they had equipment that was supposed to be efficient and well maintained.
Finally, Copenhagen's voluntary position, in its support for Ukraine, since the start of the conflict, had set an example in this area. In particular, Danish F-16s will be the first to join the Ukrainian air forces, while the country did not hesitate to transfer its 19 Caesar 8×8 artillery systems to Kyiv, to respond to the operational emergency. .
This image of performance and reliability of the Danish armies is gradually shattered, as they face, simultaneously, several operational and political incidents, as worrying as they have the potential to profoundly destabilize this key ally for the Scandinavian theater. of NATO.
In this section:
The serial failures of the armament of the frigate Iver Huitfeldt in the Red Sea
The first alert came a few days ago, when the hasty return to Denmark of the frigate Iver Huitfeldt, deployed for a little over a month in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, to escort civilian commercial ships against Houthi missiles and drones.
Although a well-equipped air defense frigate, with 32 SM-2 missiles, 24 ESSM missiles and 2 76mm cannons, the Iver Huitfeldt came close to disaster, when two of its anti-aircraft systems Key aerial weapons, the ESSM missile and the 76 mm naval artillery, successively encountered significant malfunctions, while four Houthi drones were heading towards it.
Although the frigate finally managed to destroy the four anti-ship drones, its problems led the Danish admiralty to order its return to Denmark, especially since the crew was not able to resolve them at sea.
Obviously, the affair caused a lot of noise in the country, especially since it quickly became apparent that some of the problems had been known, but deliberately ignored, for a long time, and that others were the consequence of what appeared to be hastily executed procedures to transfer equipment from the Niels Juel class frigates, which preceded them.
A new disaster narrowly avoided aboard the frigate Niels Juel with a Harpoon missile
If the episode of the Iver Huitfeldt in the Red Sea was not enough, a second serious incident occurred on April 3, aboard the frigate Niels Juel, the third and final unit of the Iver Huitfeldt class, named after the previous class, mentioned in the previous paragraph (just to make it all clear, not clear at all!).
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