Frigate, Radars, Troops Rushed To Copenhagen To Defend In opposition to Thriller Drones

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European nations are beefing up safety in Copenhagen amid an ongoing wave of reported drone sightings within the Baltics and Scandinavia. The motion of counter-drone methods, superior radars, a German frigate, a French helicopter and troops is designed to guard this week’s European Union meetings i n the Danish capital.

The sightings, over military installations and civilian airports, have additionally prompted Denmark to shut its airspace to civilian drones for every week beginning at the moment after the incursion pressured it to shut down a half dozen airports final week. In Norway, authorities mentioned flights had to be diverted on Sunday due to unknown drones over airports there.

In Norway, a passenger flight was diverted because of a drone.

russia might fully shut down Europe's air visitors with low cost drones – as a result of Europe is not combating again.

The incident occurred yesterday night. A Norwegian passenger flight was en route from Oslo to the city of… pic.twitter.com/a3tNVboqOD

— Jürgen Nauditt 🇩🇪🇺🇦 (@jurgen_nauditt) September 29, 2025

Whereas Denmark has known as the drones a part of a “hybrid assault,” officers there have stopped wanting saying definitively who's accountable, Reuters noted . Nonetheless, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has advised it might be Moscow, calling Russia the first “nation that poses a menace to European safety.” The Kremlin denies any involvement.

No matter who's behind these incursions, NATO is taking the potential menace from these drones critically.

The Swedish authorities “has simply determined to activity the Swedish Armed Forces with supporting Denmark with navy anti-drone capabilities in reference to this week’s summits in Copenhagen,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson mentioned on X Monday morning. “Particularly, this entails a unit contribution with anti-drone capabilities, so-called Counter UAS. The unit can be led by the Danish Armed Forces and contribute to their assist of the Danish police operation in reference to this week’s summits.”

As well as, Sweden may also “lend a handful of highly effective radar methods to Denmark for a time period,” Kristersson added. “Among the many greatest radar methods on the planet. That is Swedish engineering that we will be really pleased with. The radar methods have been already despatched yesterday.”

Requested by The Warfare Zone for particulars about precisely what sorts of counter-drone and radar methods are being deployed to Copenhagen, the Swedish MoD declined to remark.

Regeringen har summary fattat beslut om att ge Försvarsmakten i uppdrag att stödja Danmark med militär antidrönarförmåga i samband med veckans toppmöten i Köpenhamn. Konkret handlar det om ett förbandsbidrag med antidrönarförmåga, så kallad Counter UAS.

Förbandet får ledas av… pic.twitter.com/qPuA0l11eB

— Ulf Kristersson (@SwedishPM) September 29, 2025

Germany has deployed the Sachsen class air protection frigate FGS Hamburg to Copenhagen, the Danish Protection Ministry (MoD) announced on Sunday .

“Right here, the ship will contribute to strengthening Denmark’s surveillance of the airspace in reference to the upcoming EU summit in Copenhagen,” the ministry mentioned in an announcement. “The German frigate is a part of NATO’s Baltic Sentry exercise, which is meant to strengthen NATO’s presence alongside the alliance’s japanese flank.”

The Hamburg ’s port name is an element of a bigger NATO effort to beef up Baltic Sentry in response to the drone incursions, the alliance advised us Monday morning. The operation was stood up early this year in response to a number of cases of undersea cables being reduce in suspected acts of sabotage and is now being expanded.

“FGS Hamburg (F220), assigned to NATO’s Standing Maritime Group 1, made a port name in Copenhagen yesterday and can assist ongoing Baltic Sentry enhanced vigilance actions,” Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson, a NATO spokesman, advised The Warfare Zone Monday morning. “The presence of FGS Hamburg working close to Denmark for Baltic Sentry sends a message of assurance and cohesion inside the Alliance .”

“Following current drone incidents in Denmark, NATO is conducting much more enhanced vigilance with new multi-domain property within the Baltic Sea area, together with Denmark, beneath Baltic Sentry,” Abrahamson added. “These property embrace a number of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms and air-defense frigates. These actions exhibit the pliability and agility of this enhanced vigilance exercise to broaden the mission past solely the safety of [critical underwater infrastructure] CUI. Additionally it is a tangible instance of Allies’ resolve to behave decisively to guard and defend Allies.”

❗️The 🇩🇪German Navy frigate FGS Hamburg (F220) known as on the port of 🇩🇰Copenhagen as a part of NATO's Operation Baltic Sentry to guard the Baltic area. pic.twitter.com/N1G6ikczXG

— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) September 28, 2025

Along with deploying the Hamburg , Germany can be offering Denmark with “counter-small Unmanned Plane Techniques (C-sUAS) capabilities, which make the most of detection methods that make use of radar, optical and acoustic applied sciences,” The Associated Press noted .

France has deployed “35 personnel, a Fennec helicopter , and energetic counter-drone property” to Denmark “in response to the current upsurge in unidentified drone flights in Danish airspace,” the French Defense Ministry said in a statement , including the drones have been a “severe menace.”

📍 Danemark | Appui aux forces armées danoises @forsvaretdk face à la recrudescence de vols de drones non identifiés dans l'espace aérien 🇩🇰 dans le cadre du sommet 🇪🇺 de Copenhague les 1er et 2 octobre 2025. ➡️ Détachement d'un hélicoptère Fennec et de moyens actifs de lutte… pic.twitter.com/7SzR7O0kwh

— Armée française – Opérations militaires (@EtatMajorFR) September 29, 2025

Previous to the announcement of the asset deployments, the Danish navy arrange a XENTA-C counter-drone radar system at Copenhagen Airport, which you'll be able to see within the following video.

Whereas these property can detect and, in some instances, shoot down drones, it's unclear precisely how NATO officers will react ought to extra UAVs be noticed. Abrahamson, the NATO spokesman, declined to touch upon what guidelines of engagement the Hamburg is working beneath, as an illustration.

As Europe bolsters the airspace over Copenhagen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky known as for a counter-drone “protect” to guard NATO skies.

“Ukraine proposes to Poland and all our companions to construct a joint, totally dependable protect towards Russian aerial threats,” Zelensky said Monday in an address to the Warsaw Safety Discussion board delivered through video hyperlink. “That is potential. Ukraine can counter all types of Russian drones and missiles and if we act collectively within the area we can have sufficient weapons and manufacturing capability.”

After more than a dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace earlier this month, with some being shot down , Zelensky mentioned that his troops and engineers would prepare their Polish counterparts on countering drones.

Whereas NATO officers are reluctant responsible Russia immediately, Zelensky on Sunday accused Moscow of utilizing oil tankers to launch and management drones concentrating on European nations. The Ukrainian president cited intelligence reviews as he known as for harder sanctions towards Moscow’s power commerce.

In a video assertion earlier on X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that there's now intelligence data which signifies Russia is utilizing oil tankers to launch and function drones over a number of nations in Europe, with him calling for the Baltic Sea to be closed… pic.twitter.com/YgGgulfmKr

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) September 28, 2025

The growing concern about defending NATO’s skies started after the aforementioned drone incursions into Poland and ramped up after a flight into Estonian airspace by three Russian MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors. The current thriller drone sightings have ramped up the angst.

TWZ has long reported drone incursions over military assets and installations, as well as critical infrastructure , within the U.S. at a time when many doubted this was a problem. Conditions like Langley Air Force Base in 2023, in addition to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base , and Picatinny Arsenal , have thrust this challenge into the mainstream. Drone sightings over European military bases and important infrastructure have occurred sporadically over time, some elevating severe issues. We broke the information on several over U.S. bases in England late final yr, as an illustration. Nonetheless, this can be a downside that appears to be accelerating drastically within the wake of the Polish drone intrusions.

Then there was the vastly publicized rash of thousands of drone sightings late final yr within the New Jersey space that sparked widespread panic. The overwhelming majority of these instances, nevertheless, turned out to be mistaken identity , with solely about 100 even deemed worthy of additional investigation. It's unclear at this level what number of sightings in Europe are additionally wrongly labeled as drones, however this seems to be the case in a lot of them. The persistent lack of area consciousness for these threats by federal and navy forces solely provides to this confusion.

Not too long ago, we wrote concerning the creation of a quick reaction force (QRF) by U.S. Northern Command to assist bases within the U.S. defend towards drones. It's initially designed to be one crew out of Peterson Area Power Base in Colorado. The idea, nevertheless, exhibits simply how far behind the U.S. is in terms of countering the menace from small drones as a result of the QRF will take as much as 24 hours after an preliminary incursion to reach on scene. Related lack of preparedness exists with America’s allies in Europe.

The scrambling to deploy a hodgepodge of owned and borrowed counter-drone property to Copenhagen amid the present drone wave is additional proof of this.

Contact the writer: howard@thewarzone.com

Howard is a Senior Employees Author for The Warfare Zone , and a former Senior Managing Editor for Navy Instances . Previous to this, he lined navy affairs for the Tampa Bay Instances as a Senior Author. Howard's work has appeared in varied publications together with Yahoo Information , RealClearDefense , and Air Power Instances .