As drones disrupted Danish airports, they also turned up at an F-35 stealth fighter base

• Denmark said drones were spotted near an airbase for F-16s and F-35s as part of a professional “hybrid attack.”
• Drones were also seen at airports, leading to their temporary closure.
• The incidents, which were not blamed on a specific actor, follow repeated Russian violations of NATO airspace this month.

Amid what it described as a “hybrid attack,” NATO ally Denmark said drones were spotted near an airbase housing F-16 and F-35 fighter jets. Drones also disrupted airports across the country.

Danish officials reported drone sightings near multiple airports Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, with the military saying it saw drones at “several military installations.”

Among those bases was the Skrydstrup airbase, which houses Denmark’s fourth-generation F-16s and fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighters, the latter being among the most advanced combat airpower available in the NATO arsenal.

Drones led to the shutdown of Denmark’s Aalborg Airport, used for both commercial and military flights, for three hours. Billund Airport was down for an hour. Drones were also seen near the Esbjerg and Sonderborg airports. The incident came days after drones interrupted operations at Copenhagen airport.

Denmark blamed no specific actor, but it did characterize it as a deliberate kind of attack. Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said that “everything points to this being the work of a professional actor” and said “this is what I would define as a hybrid attack using different types of drones.” He said there was no immediate evidence that Russia was responsible. Police are investigating further.

Peter Hummelgaard, Denmark’s justice minister, said the motivation behind the recent attacks is “to create fear” and create division, saying no options are being ruled out for who is responsible.

NATO’s already on edge

The drone incidents in Denmark come at a time when NATO is already on edge due to recent Russian incursions, both with drones and fighter aircraft. Officials and experts suspect Russia is engaging in a shadow war, testing alliance defenses and responses.

Russian drones violated NATO ally Poland’s airspace earlier this month and were shot down by NATO jets, temporarily stopping an airport’s operations. Russia said the drones were not there intentionally, saying they veered off course, but Poland’s defense minister categorically rejected the claim and instead described it as a deliberate targeting of its sovereign airspace.

And then last week, Estonia reported that three Russian MiG-31 interceptor aircraft violated its airspace, staying for 12 minutes. Moscow said it never entered Estonian airspace.

And then Denmark’s Copenhagen airport closed on Monday due to drones. Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said she could not rule out Russia being responsible for that, calling it “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date.”

She said motives could be “to disrupt and create unrest, to cause concern, to see how far you can go and test the limits.” Russia called it a “staged provocation” and denied any involvement.

Defenses and responses

Recent events have sparked new concerns across NATO about how to defend airspaces from new and old threats, a concern already weighing heavily on the alliance from watching how Russia is fighting in Ukraine.

That war, in which Russia has launched huge drone and missile barrages into Ukraine, has shown NATO that it needs significantly more ground-based air defenses, something that has not been prioritized since the end of the Cold War.

The conflict, among other incidents, has also shown a need for strong, appropriate defenses against the threat of drones, which can be obtained cheaply and employed for reconnaissance and strike purposes against high-value targets. The low price point makes using expensive air-to-air missiles problematic, and some inexpensive electronic warfare solutions can’t be effectively employed in civilian areas, a challenge with certain kinetic options as well.

Michael Hyldgaard, Denmark’s chief of defence, said the drones seen on Wednesday and Thursday were not shot down to keep the population safe. Poulsen also said that the military is able to shoot down the drones, but added there isn’t a direct military threat against Denmark that requires doing so.

Recent events have, however, sparked new discussions about shooting down perceived threats within NATO airspace.

Lithuania’s parliament passed a law that authorized its armed forces to shoot down any drones that unlawfully enter its airspace, regardless of whether they directly pose a threat. Poland’s prime minister said that his country would shoot down a threatening aerial object that violates its airspace. And NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said alliance members could target any Russian combat aircraft that enter NATO airspace.

Others, like Sweden, have also issued warnings. A key challenge for NATO, though, is showing strength without risking possibly unnecessary escalation. Hybrid attacks, or gray zone aggression, only complicate things further.

Many countries say they are constantly fighting Russian hybrid threats, like cyber attacks, assassination attempts, interference in democracy, and signal jamming — real threats that are not traditionally met with a hard power response.

Amid debates on how to properly respond to these challenges, the frequency of incidents has been on the rise. Hummelgaard, while not pointing at Russia for the recent incident, said the hybrid threats Denmark is seeing are “here to stay,” saying there have been “deeply worrying incidents across Europe.”

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