Denmark has briefly banned civil drone flights in its airspace because it prepares to host a prime European Union assembly on defense and the war in Ukraine, and after a surge of suspicious drone exercise at a number of airports and navy websites final week.
The ban, which runs from Monday to Friday, goals to eradicate any danger of “hostile” drones being mistaken for authorized ones or vice versa, the nation’s transport minister Thomas Danielson advised NCS.
Several unexplained sightings of drones over civilian airports and a navy base had been reported in Denmark last week. The incidents pressured a number of airports to briefly shut and disrupted journey for tens of hundreds of individuals.
Top European leaders will descend on Copenhagen on Wednesday for a European Council assembly to debate defense and Ukraine, adopted by a European Political Community summit in the town the subsequent day.
“We are currently in a difficult security situation, and we must ensure the best possible working conditions for the armed forces and the police when they are responsible for security during the EU summit,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen stated in an announcement on Sunday.
Europe has been on excessive alert in current weeks resulting from a string of drone sightings, in addition to incursions by Russian drones into NATO airspace over Poland and Romania and the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stated that whereas authorities can not conclude who’s behind the drone sightings, “we can at least conclude that there is primarily one country that poses a threat to Europe’s security – and that is Russia.” The Kremlin has denied involvement in the drone sightings in addition to that it violated Estonian airspace.
In response to the unexplained drone flights in Denmark, NATO stated on Saturday that it’s upgrading defense measures in the Baltic Sea area.
The following day, FSG Hamburg, a German air defense frigate with NATO’s “Baltic Sentry” mission, arrived in Copenhagen to assist strengthen airspace surveillance through the upcoming EU summit, the Danish defense ministry stated in an announcement to the Associated Press.
The “Baltic Sentry” mission launched in January in response to a string of incidents that broken energy cables, telecom hyperlinks and fuel pipelines on the Baltic Sea mattress.
It is now joined by the newly launched “Eastern Sentry” mission which goals to bolster defenses on Europe’s jap flank following Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace.
Additionally, Germany introduced it’s going to present “Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems” at Denmark’s request to detect drones utilizing radar, optical and acoustic expertise, in accordance with the Associated Press.
Sweden has additionally pledged to lend Denmark an anti-drone system, although particulars stay undisclosed, the AP stated.