{"id":42863,"date":"2025-09-25T15:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/42863\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:20:07","slug":"drones-at-danish-airports-part-of-systemic-attack-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/42863\/","title":{"rendered":"Drones at Danish airports part of \u2018systemic\u2019 attack \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denmark <\/a>suffered a \u201csystematic\u201d and \u201cprofessional\u201d hybrid attack when drones were spotted by police at four regional airports including two used by the military, according to ministers in the Scandinavian country.<\/p>\n

Unauthorised drones closed Aalborg, Denmark\u2019s third-largest airport and used by both commercial and military aircraft, for more than three hours on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Local police said they had also seen drones at the smaller airports of Esbjerg, S\u00f8nderborg and Skrydstrup in western Denmark. The latter is home to some of Denmark\u2019s fleet of F-16 and F-35 fighter jets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks systematic, and what I would define as a hybrid attack,\u201d said Troels Lund Poulsen, defence minister.<\/p>\n

Peter Hummelgaard, justice minister, said: \u201cThe goal with this kind of hybrid attack is to create fear and divisions, and make us scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(L-R)(L-R) Denmark’s Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark’s Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard, Denmark’s National Police Chief Thorkild Fogde and Denmark’s Chief of Defence Michael Hyldgaard hold a press conference on the recent drone activities at several airports in Denmark, at the Ministry of Defence in Copenhagen on September 25, 2025. Drone flights that caused Danish airports to close on two nights this week were a systematic and hybrid operation by a “professional actor,” the country’s defence minister said. (Photo by Emil Nicolai Helms \/ Ritzau Scanpix \/ AFP) \/ Denmark OUT (Photo by EMIL NICOLAI HELMS\/Ritzau Scanpix\/AFP via Getty Images) <\/p>\n

The sightings occurred days after two to three large drones closed airspace over Copenhagen airport for four hours. Denmark\u2019s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen refused to rule out Russian involvement, after that country\u2019s aircraft and drones recently violated the airspace of Poland, Romania and Estonia.<\/p>\n

Denmark\u2019s defence forces also confirmed a drone sighting over the base of the Jutland Dragoon Regiment in Holstebro, in the west of the country.\u201cThe Danish Armed Forces may choose to take down drones over military installations, taking into account the specific threat and risk assessment,\u201d it added, after Denmark\u2019s chief of defence earlier said it decided not to after Thursday\u2019s incidents.<\/p>\n

The defence and justice ministers refused to connect Russia to the latest drone sightings as they said there remained many unanswered questions, including who controlled the drones and where they came from and flew to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take it seriously. We can\u2019t live with this. So we\u2019re putting a lot of effort into it,\u201d said Thorkild Fogde, head of Danish police, on Thursday.Russia\u2019s embassy in Denmark said it \u201cfirmly rejects the absurd speculations of involvement in the incidents\u201d, adding that they were a \u201cstaged provocation\u201d set to be used \u201cas a pretext for further escalating tension\u201d.<\/p>\n

Danish police said they had received scores of observations of drones from the public on Thursday, including a sighting near Danish oilfields. <\/p>\n

They said there were also unverified reports of drones at airports in Billund and on Bornholm, a strategic island in the Baltic Sea. <\/p>\n

Denmark\u2019s armed forces and intelligence services are helping the investigation.One possible scenario for the drone sightings at Copenhagen airport on Monday evening and Tuesday morning is that they could have been launched from a nearby ship, something also under investigation in Germany after drone sightings near military bases and critical infrastructure sites.<\/p>\n

Nato has responded to violations of European airspace by launching Operation Eastern Sentry to boost air defence in frontline states. But experts have said most European countries do not have a reliable strategy against often cheap drones, and are either not able to shoot them down or have to depend on expensive weaponry such as fighter jets or surface-to-air missiles.<\/p>\n

Frederiksen said on X on Thursday that she had spoken about the \u2018\u2018serious situation related to drones over Danish airports\u2019\u2019 with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte. \u2018\u2018We agreed that Nato would work with Denmark on what we can do together to ensure safety and security,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Defence ministers from eastern frontline states will meet on Friday to discuss plans to construct a \u201cdrone wall\u201d, while EU leaders will hold an informal summit in Copenhagen next week to talk about defence and support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Several opposition parties sharply criticised the centrist Danish government for not being prepared for the drone warfare that has been taking place in Ukraine, more than three years after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n

Pelle Dragsted, MP for the Red-Green Alliance, called the drone incursions \u201ca gigantic failure\u201d by a government that had spent massively on the military but had \u201cno control over the most basic thing: the defence of our own vulnerable infrastructure\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mette Abildgaard, a Conservative MP, told broadcaster DR: \u201cIf I\u2019m being completely honest, it is in many ways a humiliation for Denmark.\u201d <\/p>\n

Defence minister Poulsen conceded that Denmark did not have the technology to take down some types of drones. Hummelgaard added that the government would prepare a new law giving owners of critical infrastructure the authority to shoot down drones.<\/p>\n

Denmark has been one of the most enthusiastic supporters of Ukraine and has aggressively increased its own military spending, including purchases of mid- and long-range air defences and missiles capable of striking Russia.<\/p>\n

The Danish government has also amended several laws to allow the fast-track approval of a Ukrainian defence factory, close to Skrydstrup air base, which is set to make fuel to power missiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denmark suffered a \u201csystematic\u201d and \u201cprofessional\u201d hybrid attack when drones were spotted by police at four regional airports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[32091,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-42863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-denmark-drones","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}