Christian Wenande
August 19th, 2022

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Denmark to upgrade its Navy and ship building ability (photo: Forsvarsministeriet/Henning Jespersen-Skree)

The government has unveiled plans to significantly upgrade its Navy in the wake of the War in Ukraine and Russian aggression. 

The Defence Ministry has announced a new maritime partnership with the industry and maritime sector that will see 40 billion kroner of investment into the Navy.

Furthermore, it also intends to revamp the nation’s ship-building capacity to allow Denmark to construct its own warships.

“With Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the new European security situation, it is more important than ever before for Denmark to be able to defend itself,” said the defence minister, Morten Bødskov.

“It is essential that Danish Defence can obtain the material required for a strong Danish defence – including on the seas, where Denmark is one of the world’s top maritime nations.”

Bødskov went on to say that Danish Defence needs to phase out a number of warships in the coming years.

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Public-private collaboration
Anne H Steffensen, the head of Danish Shipping, will lead the partnership while the Defence Ministry will be the deputy head. 

The new partnership will co-ordinate across the state, industry, professional organisations and financial institutions.

Initially, it has been tasked with developing recommendations pertaining to the long-term warship needs of Danish Defence – including building and maintaining said vessels.

“A close public-private co-operation is the right way to go. Denmark has lots of competencies that can and must be utilised to develop and build new ships,” said Steffensen.

Aside from the Defence Ministry and maritime sector, other partners taking part are:

– Business Ministry

– Education and Research Ministry

– Dansk Industri

– Dansk Metal

– Danske Maritime

– 3F Industri

– Forsikring & Pension

– Maritime DTU

– MARTEC in Frederikshavn