LIVERPOOL, England — The U.K. is sending counter-drone technology to Denmark, after several airports reported incursions by airborne devices in recent days.
Defense Secretary John Healey confirmed the move for the first time in an interview at the POLITICO Pub at Labour conference on Monday.
“No one should be in any doubt that we are facing a level of grayzone activity and aggression which is testing us and testing other countries,” he said.
The Danish government concluded that the drones flown over its airports in recent days are the work of a “professional actor”, but said there was no evidence of Russian involvement, after such activity disrupted its airspace twice in the space of a week.
Aalborg airport was forced to shut down for several hours last week after green lights were spotted overhead, and Billund airport was also briefly forced to closed. Three smaller Danish airports also reported drone activity.
In his interview with POLITICO, Healey also attacked Labour’s rivals on the right, saying: “I don’t think Nigel Farage or his party could be trusted with national security.”
Healey said that the government was “standing up to Putin. You’ve got Farage and his party looking up to him,” he added. “There’s something deeply suspect about Nigel Farage, isn’t there?”
The defense secretary, seen as a solid presence in Keir Starmer’s turbulent government, insisted in the interview that the U.K. was confident in the U.S. as an ally.
Starmer trusts the commitment Donald Trump gave him when they met in the White House “that the U.S. remains totally committed to NATO,” Healey said.
He specified that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had “made it very clear we want the European nations to step up, but we are not stepping away.”
He declined, however, to say he’d want to follow Hegseth in being known as secretary for war.
“I’m looking to the future,” he said.
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