Danish and American officials recently celebrated the rollout of the first F-35A Lightning II for the Royal Danish Air Force at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas.
“The security situation around the world is increasingly complex,” said Trine Bramsen, Danish Minister of Defense.
“Being able to defend yourself and your allies is crucial. For peace. For stability. For freedom and democracy. With the new F-35 fighter jets we will increase our ability to protect Denmark. Our region. And wherever necessary as we have done before – side by side with the U.S. and other allies. The F-35s will be at the absolute center for the Danish Defense in the coming decades.”
“The F-35 will ensure Denmark’s sovereignty and air dominance, enhance its multidomain and network-based coalition operations, and play a pivotal role in keeping the Arctic a secure and stable region,” said Greg Ulmer, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
“This game-changing capability would not be possible without the unwavering support of the Danish government and the innovative contributions of Danish industry.”
Senior government and military leaders from Denmark and the United States attended the ceremony.
According to Lockheed:
“Danish industry serves as a critical partner with the F-35 Lightning II program through high technology work, ensuring competitiveness and defense industry viability in Denmark. Two Danish companies, Terma A/S and Multicut A/S, are currently making parts such as pylons, advanced composites, software solutions, radar components and horizontal tail edges for every F-35 delivered.”
Denmark’s F-35 programme is after 27 F-35A aircraft, each of which will be built at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth.
The first aircraft will be delivered to Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, later this month where Danish pilots and maintainers will begin training.
To date, Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 625 F-35s, trained more than 1,300 pilots and 10,380 maintainers, and the F-35 fleet has flown nearly 370,000 cumulative flight hours.
I work with the Danish on a daily basis. Very sensible people, lovely country. They don’t make big decisions on defence procurement on a whim. These F35’s will serve Denmark very well.
Eye watering my expensive country!
I used to live in Sweden and the joke went that the Swedes shopped in Germany and the Danes shopped in Sweden – once the Malmö bridge was open.
Such were the price differentials.
The only thing the Swedes and the Danes bought in Sweden was really good wine as the Systemboulagen (state alcohol shops) had too much of it bought for the Millenium. Unfortunately international arbitrage ruined that!!
Oh I agree, very expensive country, a few beers in Copenhagen will set you back a few quid. 😄
I’ve been to Norway, and I thought young people went to Sweden because it was cheaper. Certainly alcohol is expensive in Norway. Do these places still distill their own?
I’m not sure TrevorH. I’ve been to Norway a few times too. Stunning country. Stunning beer price’s 😄. My first time at sea with the RN was to Norway. Fjords and the northern lights was a real treat. -17 temperatures on the flight deck wasn’t so much fun.
Agree Robert. As a kid in the then Southern Rhodesia my best pal was the son of the Danish Consul. We all had to get up and say our names at the beginning of the school year. In a class full of Anglos-Smith,Rodgers,White etc along came his turn-Frederick Anton Niergaard Ellert! Brought the house down
Schoolboy humour 🙂
I bet 😄. Every other guy I work with is called ‘Lars’ 😄
I also work with Danes. I have a reasonably high opinion of them but nowhere near as high as their opinion of themselves 😊.
To be fair it is a nice place but a little boring. Living in Denmark is like moving to the suburbs. Good place to raise a family but nothing exciting happens 😃.
I would have to 100% agree! 😄 lovely country, but not the most exciting.
Bit like Finland…? 🙂
Surprised you havent posted a story on the news that the Royal Navy is diverting a frigate and a destroyer from its carrier group into the Black Sea to show solidarity with Ukraine and cover the US pulling out of a NATO commitment to do the same. Carrier on standby to provide air cover for the ships in the Black Sea.
False narrative. The proposed US transit had absolutely nothing to do with NATO and the UK transit has absolutely nothing to do with covering for the US. The Turkish Foreign Ministry misinterpreted a routine notification by the US under the Montreaux Convention.
Whose carrier is on standby to cover the ships in the Black Sea?
The Queen Elizebeth will be covering them, US notified Turkey 5 days ago that it was cancelling its planned deployment of two frigates (happens 9 times a year) due to Russian-Ukraine tensions, day after it was told by Russia to keep out. it has not rebooked any transits. MoD announced it was dispatching the carrier group to show solidarity on the day the US told them it had pulled out.
Einsenhower left the med two weeks ago and is currently with the De Gaulle conducting joint manoeuvres off Bahrain.
If the Danes can afford to buy 27 F35A’s then how come New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland cannot purchase a single front line jet? The most sensible solution for the ROI would be a squadron of Typhoons operated in co-operation with the RAF to patrol the skies of the UK and Ireland’s land and seas.
Like sharing the load, particularly in view of the RAF’s slimming down in the recent Defence review
Made me smile, those two countries seem to like freeloading and do well out of it lol!
Gooie more-hoe gaan dit Jan
He’s a Liverpudlian geoff!
🙂 🙂 With a name like that I would have thought he hailed from Pretoria!!
Kimberley boet. die voorgee Grieks is ‘n stomkop.
Goeie dankie Geoff, hoe is jy?
Ek is sterk ou maat maar my Afrikaans is baaie sleg! Ek is n Soutie van Natal af! 🙂
Ja, your Bastard Dutch is like my Dutch lol! You do well for an Engels Geoff.
I always considered New Zealand ditching it’s fast jest capability as a reckless decision.
Here’s the rub, in the relatively stable era when NZ made that move, they could probably justify and get away with it.
Today, with China taking a more aggressive approach in the Pacific, it’s looking like a poor decision.
A small buy of Gripen E’s (36) would give a robust and capable minimum force and allow a token force of say 8 jets, to deploy with the Australians in times of regional tension, when needed.
Australia and New Zealand might well find themselves monitored by regular long range large Chinese intelligence gathering UAV’s in the future too.
The Irish, well why bother when the UK will step in and carry out such missions when required, apparently F.O.C too ….
Australia could offer mates rates servicing and support of NZ fast jets
Singapore was going to base F15’s in Northland for training purposes, would have made sense for NZ to negotiate an air defence deal but sadly it fell through. Lack of any fighter cover is a glaring hole in their policy.
Seeing as New Zealand looks more favourably at it’s relationship with China,maybe the Chinese can reciprocate and furnish the Kiwi’s with some JF17’s.
Ha…. how many fast jets would an independent scotland buy? Or anti submarine frigates? Norway is the same population as Scotland, how many fast jets has it and how many F35s has if on order?
Norway has ordered 52 F35As, with 18 delivered. It is a wealthy country though so can’t really compare to other countries with a similar population.