Defence Nordic (September 2026)

Autumn 2026 76 pages of essential Nordic defence news Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT/Ritzau Scanpix The frigates of the future

NEWS Brand new missile fits really well with new trend in warfare The new long-range missile is designed to give the US and European allies an affordable way to build up large stockpiles for conflicts with Russia and China By Oliver Bærentsen olba@nordiskemedier.dk Cheap missiles and lots of them

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NEWS Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket blasts off at Andøya Space in Arctic Norway. Photo: Isar Aerospace Historic launch exposes Europe's massive gap to SpaceX According to an expert Europe still lacks the launch capacity and capital needed to challenge US dominance in space - The launch is a mil

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NEWS Europe turns to Israel for defence technology despite political tensions European countries are deepening their defence ties with Israel, driven by the military experience of young conscripts and the countrys specialised technology By Jesper Lesager jle@nordiskemedier.dk European countries a

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NEWS The Bradley survived four decades of war. Now its successor from Rheinmetall is here The beloved M2 will be replaced by a german made hybrid-electric IFV By Oliver Bærentsen olba@nordiskemedier.dk Operation Desert Storm, the Iraq War and the battlefields of Ukraine. The M2 Bradley Fighting V

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NEWS Latvia drops Swedish system for Czech howitzers Latvia and Sweden signed a letter of intent in June 2025 for the potential acquisition of 18 Archer systems Latvia has chosen to acquire Morana 155 mm self-propelled howitzers from Czech manufacturer Excalibur Army instead of Swedens Archer syste

NEWS MilDef to expand Swedish production site - The expansion is a result of growing customer demand in the Nordic region, CEO Daniel Ljunggren said. Photo: JannLipka/ Mildef The new facility is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2028 Swedish defence technology company MilDef is e

NEWS Gomspace delivers satellite solutions aimed at both commercial companies and governments. Photo: Gomspace Satellite manufacturer is chasing defence billions CEO Carsten Drachmann is confident that the Danish space group GomSpace can turn its new defence push into sizeable business. The accoun

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NEWS Denmark signs nine-figure deal for additional air defence missiles Denmark has awarded MBDA a EUR 107m contract to supply additional VL MICA missiles and upgrade the countrys existing air defence systems By Jesper Lesager jle@nordiskemedier.dk Denmark has signed a EUR 106.99m contract with m

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NEWS French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson pose aboard a Swedish Navy CB90 fast assault craft in Stockholm, Sweden, on August 31, 2026, ahead of a bilateral meeting and the signing of a 4.3-billion-euro contract for Sweden's acquisition of four French-built

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FEATURE Denmark needs new frigates and would be wise to keep a close eye on drones and emerging technology, two former Danish Navy chiefs say. Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau/Scanpix 20 Defence Nordic // Autumn 2026

The frigate of the future could serve as a mothership for drones The Danish Navy still needs combat-capable frigates, but the next generation should be designed fundamentally differently and not bought off the shelf, two former Danish Navy chiefs say Defence Nordic // Autumn 2026 21

FEATURE By Sophie Bavnhøj soba@nordiskemedier.dk A lthough drones have taken over the battlefield in Ukraine, frigates are by no means a thing of the past for the Danish Navy. But the naval warfare of the future will require frigates of an entirely different calibre than those in service today. T

- And that is the whole point. We need to be able to enter with supply ships to resupply the Baltic nations and fight our way into recaptured territory. Unique waters require unique solutions But focusing exclusively on the situation in the Baltic Sea would be a mistake, Torben Mikkelsen stresses.

FEATURE After 42 years in the Danish Armed Forces, Torben Mikkelsen hung up his uniform in 2024. Photo: Celina Dahl/Ritzau Scanpix Continued from page 23 tish Navy is working to turn the idea, or concept, of a hybrid fleet capable of handling future missions into reality. Drones can monitor Danish

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FEATURE Contenders for Denmarks Shipbuilders from across Europe are positioning themselves for a competition that still lacks political definition, with Rheinmetall making the latest moves By Kevin Landor Laursen kll@nordiskemedier.dk M ore than a year after Denmark was expected to decide on new

Frigate Programme Major shipbuilding nations compete for the only remaining frigate programme. Photo: Rheinmetall, Naval Group, Babcock, Navantia. ved their first ships, while Sweden is negotiating for four FDIbased frigates. Naval Group says a Danish vessel could arrive in 2030 if ordered in 2026,

NEWS Alfonso Valea González, Navantias Commercial Director for Europe. Photo: DefenseHere/YT One issue could undermine Navantias Danish frigate bid The Spanish shipbuilder says its F-110 frigate is on schedule and ready for Danish industry. Madrids rejection of NATO target could be the harder sell

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FEATURE Pirates shot a boat to pieces. Now Steen Ulrich is building a tougher one Danish boat builder has sights set for defence sector with small versatile boat NIMON TACTICAL BOAT Lenght: 12 meters Weight: 7 tonnes empty Top speed (unloaded): 43 knots Engines: Two 440 horsepower Volvo Penta Fuel

By Oliver Bærentsen olba@nordiskemedier.dk A 2021 firefight between Danish frogmen and suspected pirates in the Gulf of Guinea left a former special forces soldier wondering: Why wasnt there a boat that could provide better protection for the troops? - Their boat was shot to pieces. The frogmen we

FEATURE The seats are raised and cushioned by a gas cylinder. Photo: Oliver Bærentsen Steen Ulrich, CEO of Nimon Boats. Photo: Oliver Bærentsen The rear of the boat showing the payload deck area. Photo: Nimon Boats Nimon Tactical Boat weighing 7 tonnes. Photo: Nimon Boats Continued from page 31

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ADVERTORIAL A drone airport is being built at Port Esbjerg, which is also testing underwater systems, microgrids and AI-based surveillance solutions. Photo: Port Esbjerg can see only the picture presented by the ports own operations and would like the state to share information about possible scen

NEWS Banks are a dead end for startup capital. Denmark has added another step A Swedish startup turned to investors and innovation funding before approaching a bank. Denmark has added a step to bridge precisely that early financing gap When Swedish defence startup Valkyr Defense needed its first ou

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NEWS Nordic banks answer defence-sector critics Defence companies accuse banks of being too rigid and unwilling to take risks. Danske Bank and DNB push back By Kevin Landor Laursen kll@nordiskemedier.dk Amalie Møller Rydendahl has heard it all before. That banks are too cautious, too rigid and to

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NEWS Military intelligence service warns of possible attacks on defence companies and CEOs New threat assessment warns of an escalation of Russian hybrid attacks By Oliver Bærentsen olba@nordiskemedier.dk - We see attacks being planned against companies in the defence sector. These can target the

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NEWS On Ukraines battlefields, defence products are outdated in months: - You need to adapt constantly Svyatoslav Posmetnyy, Country Director for Ukraine for MyDefence. Photo: MyDefence Defence companies need boots on the ground in Ukraine if they want to keep up with the pace of R&D Ukrainian en

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FEATURE Italian prime successfully tests direct competitor to Nordic anti-ship missiles Teseo missile is expected to be delivered to Italian Navy in 2028 By Oliver Bærentsen olba@nordiskemedier.dk A new generation of anti-ship missiles has emerged following the successful test firing of MBDAs Te

Saab Bofors Dynamics anti-ship missile RBS 15 Mk4 Gungnir. Photo: Swadim Saab Group, the parent company of Saab Bofors Dynamics, employed more than 27,000 people in 2025. The group also produces radar systems and military aircraft. The Swedish Wallenberg family controls approximately 48 percent of S

NEWS Defence takes over at Iceye In an interview with Defence Nordic, VP Seppo Aaltonen explains why defence now dominates ICEYEs business - and what its next target markets are By Kevin Landor Laursen kll@nordiskemedier.dk Few companies are enjoying Europes defence boom quite like Iceye. The Fin

ADVERTORIAL Critical applications require control over data and infrastructure Security in the armed forces and other critical sectors depends not only on applications, but also to a great extent on the infrastructure on which they run. With Contain Core, Danish company Netic aims to provide organi

NEWS Iceye sidesteps Musk question despite SpaceX reliance The Finnish satellite group praises the price and pace offered by its main launch partner but avoided assessing the man behind it. Meanwhile, Europe still lacks a proven alternative By Kevin Landor Laursen kll@nordiskemedier.dk Iceye pres

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NEWS Outscaling Norway on a friend discount Danish Minister of Defence Jeppe Bruus spoke at the launch of the Danish Armed Forces' new AI centre. Photo: Kevin Landor Laursen Denmark has officially launched its new military AI unit. While the initiative draws on Norway's experiences, the Danish set

ADVERTORIAL From supply chain to ecosystem in the Danish defence industry Denmark has a broad base of subcontractors capable of strengthening security of supply for the Danish Armed Forces. To bridge the gap between these many smaller companies and the Armed Forces, Lemvigh-Müller has created a sup

NEWS French prime launches AI command system tested in NATO exercise The system was tested during NATOs CWIX 2026 exercise in Poland and is designed to connect military networks across all operational domains By Jesper Lesager jle@nordiskemedier.dk Thales has launched HexaForce, an AI-enabled com

Norautron aims for defense Norautron is shifting into an extra gear and is now aiming for the defense sector. Norautron is an EMS company that specializes in advanced electronics, with customers in maritime, industry, medtech and already in the defense sector now there will be more in defense. Nor

FEATURE Four Nordic nations, four The Swedish Armed Forces join the rest of Scandinavia in acquiring longer range artillery systems By Oliver Bærentsen olba@nordiskemedier.dk S weden has become the latest Nordic country to strengthen its long-range rocket artillery capabilities. With its SEK 7 b

different choices A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is fired during a live fire exercise with Philippine and U.S. troops in the Philippines. Photo: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix Elbit Systems PULS launcher. Photo: Kpl1 Wessel Zuijderduin 00s. Instead of replacing the tracked la

NEWS The Vanta USV from Stark comes in two sizes. Photo: Stark Stark turns to Denmark for maritime drone production The German defence tech group has selected Seasight Solutions to produce its Vanta USV. The Danish manufacturer sees the partnership as a model for accelerating European rearmament

Argo Defence Group on the offensive Argo Defence Group is a newly formed defence industry group that was listed on the stock exchange at the end of last year. The focus is on customers in military and civil defence. The group sells mainly to Sweden and Ukraine but also to several other countries. A

FEATURE A speed record marked the beginning of US company Saildrone. Now it is setting up on Copenhagen to sell drones in Europe By Sophie Bavnhøj soba@nordiskemedier.dk U ncrewed maritime drones will become a central part of the worlds naval fleets over the next ten years. That is the predictio

mph, equivalent to approximately 202.9 km/h. - After that, I moved to Californias Bay Area and set out to build Saildrone, using the same wind technology on uncrewed boats, he says. When the US Navy said no After setting the speed record, Richard Jenkins was so confident in his technology that he t

FEATURE Richard Jenkins, founder and CEO of Saildrone, at the opening of the comapny's Danish offices on August 17 2026. Photo: Sophie Bavnhøj Continued from page 61 that is with large numbers of robots. Solving that problem was my vision, he says. From the Arctic to US shores After the US Navy r

ADVERTORIAL When sound becomes an additional sense Modern sensors, real-time beamforming, DSP and AI allow acoustics to be used for applications including detecting and locating drones, monitoring critical infrastructure and identifying faults in military equipment. BY FLEMMING ØSTERGAARD A drone c

Europes clean drone push: Inside the costly race to cut China from defence supply chains Justas Poderys founded Monopulse to make marine search and rescue drones. The pivot to surveillance drones for the battlefield has so far proved a succes. Photo: Rasmus Schaal Linneberg 64 Defence Nordic // A

Europe wants defence systems it can produce in a crisis. Two Danish drone manufacturers show why achieving that resilience is difficult, expensive and never absolute By Rasmus Schaal Linneberg rsl@nordiskemedier.dk F or the past three and a half years, Justas Poderys has been travelling the world

FEATURE Continued from page 65 take advantage of its upper hand by closing off supply. - It can be used as a choke point. You can suddenly lose access to a critical component that will halt a big supply chain, says Lars Gjesvik. Building wartime capacity in peacetime The status as a drone built wi

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FEATURE USD 3.4bn startup bets on Cambridge Aerospace tells Defence Nordic why it sees room alongside established suppliers in a region it has considered critical since day one. It has yet to disclose a Nordic order By Kevin Landor Laursen kll@nordiskemedier.dk C ambridge Aerospace is not short

Nordic air-defence gap counter large numbers of comparatively inexpensive drones and missiles. - We are in a position to provide magazine depth and volume that is not there today or in the near term. Our ambition is to complement the existing primes and the arsenals of the individual Nordic countrie

NEWS Systematic deal is just the beginning of Danish offset work Several more Danish agreements are nearing signature as Thales works through offset obligations tied to Denmark's SAMP/T NG acquisition By Kevin Landor Laursen kll@nordiskemedier.dk Thales has put Danish software company Systematic

32 DEFENCE NORDIC AD INSERT ADVERTORIAL Danish electronics production could When sound becomes an play an important role in the drone additional industry of thesense future Modern sensors, real-time beamforming, DSP and AI allow acoustics to be used for HP Elektronik-Montage sees new opportunit

INTERVIEW He built his baby from scratch. Then Kongsberg came knocking For Vytenis Buzas, building NanoAvionics was the easy choice. The harder one came when what was best for the company was no longer necessarily what he wanted for himself By Kevin Landor Laursen kll@nordiskemedier.dk H ad the

Vytenis Buzas, founder of NanoAvionics. Credit: Vilnius Tech. some of that discipline was overdue. - We were completely focused on innovation and the technical possibilities, not revenue and EBITDA, Buzas says. - Considering its size, the business probably needed to mature. Growing up, in other wor

NEWS A tiny camera order could unlock breakthrough deal for 10-months-old startup A small paid order from Tekever is likely to end up giving ten-month-old Sapient Perception its first major international breakthrough, says co-founder By Kevin Landor Laursen kll@nordiskemedier.dk An order for fewe

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