Denmark said it will increase defense spending by $4.2 billion to improve security in Greenland and the Arctic and North Atlantic regions. It also will spend $4.5 billion to buy 16 additional F-35 fighter jets from the United States, bringing its F-35 fleet to 43.
“With this … agreement, we significantly strengthen the capabilities of the Danish Armed Forces in the region,” Denmark’s Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said in a statement October 10, 2025. The defense boost comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said Greenland was critical for U.S. “national security and international security.”
The NATO ally revealed that — “as something new” — the F-35 purchase will include collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) wingman drones or uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), the Breaking Defense website reported. The CCA concept envisions UAVs flying alongside the F-35s, augmenting them with missions ranging from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to offensive strikes. The CCAs “are seen as a significant contribution to operational task solving,” the Danish Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a statement. “The follow-up drones can, for example, be used as a forward weapons platform or for reconnaissance under tactical control of the pilot in the F-35 fighter aircraft.”
“The Ministry of Defence will now initiate a dialogue with the international F-35 program office with the aim of being able to implement a rapid delivery of the new fighter aircraft, which can support a rapid build-up of the Danish Armed Forces’ combat power,” the MoD statement said. The timing of the CCA order was unclear because the Air Force is not scheduled to award a final CCA production contract until fiscal 2026.
Denmark worked with the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands on the defense package. Under the agreement, Denmark also will buy two new Arctic ships, maritime patrol planes and early warning radar. The investment also includes a new Arctic command headquarters in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, a new military unit under Joint Arctic Command in Greenland, and construction of a North Atlantic subsea cable between Greenland and Denmark.
“Security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic is a common interest for the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States,” said Denmark’s Ambassador to the U.S. Jesper Møller Sørensen in an interview with The Wall Street Journal newspaper. “Today’s announcement underscores our commitment to further strengthen defence and security in the region with capabilities that expand the assertion of sovereignty and surveillance.”
Greenland has been home to a U.S. radar base since the Cold War. Pituffik Space Base, 1207 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, is the northernmost U.S. base and a critical location in defending the U.S. from missile attacks.
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 13, 2025, Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said: “Defending North America is inherently linked to the ability of the Joint Force to operate effectively across the entire USNORTHCOM area of responsibility — to include the Arctic. … “Arctic responsibilities are shared across multiple geographic and functional combatant commands, and as competition in the region increases, safeguarding Arctic access and freedom of maneuver will depend on Joint Force Arctic operational capabilities and build on the already strong ties between Arctic partners. USNORTHCOM places enormous value on the ability to conduct operations and exercises in the High North and to execute assigned missions in coordination with fellow combatant commands,” Guillot testified.