Denmark will invest 38 billion kroner (approximately 5.09 billion euros) over the next ten years to modernize its defence. The Danish Ministry of Defense announced this on Thursday.
About 27 billion kroner will be released for equipment, buildings, information technologies and personnel “to meet the accumulated challenges” and 11 billion kroner for new investments, the ministry said in a statement. This states that more resources are needed for defence due to the current geopolitical situation.
“For several years, security policy has taken a heavy toll on the Danish defence system,” said competent minister Troels Lund Poulsen. “At the same time, we must recognize that we, politicians, have made decisions based on hypotheses that turn out to be wrong. That means we are now faced with a huge task: to restore the foundations of defence to strengthen them.”
The announcement comes after an audit of the Danish army in preparation for negotiations on the defence budget for 2024. The audit found that the equipment and barracks are outdated, and there are challenges regarding information technology to meet the new demands around digitization.
According to army chief Flemming Lentfer, it is also abundantly clear that there is a need for new soldiers. “The task is huge. It’s not something we can solve in a year or two,” he said at a press conference.
After announcing an increase in its military spending in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Denmark has indicated it wants to spend 2 percent of its GDP on defence by 2030. That is an objective of NATO, of which Denmark is a member.