The NATO alliance is history’s most successful defensive partnership. It retains high value for the United States. But not all NATO allies are made equal. Some allies won’t adequately commit resources or military forces to deter common enemies. Their number includes Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, and Spain.
The six million people of Denmark offer a very different example, however. Denmark lost the U.S. population equivalent of 2,152 soldiers fighting alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, the country is once again underscoring its importance to NATO and America by purchasing long-range missiles.
As Defense News reports, Denmark will purchase the air-launched Joint Strike Missile made by the Norwegian company Kongsberg and U.S. company Raytheon. Capable of hitting land and naval targets operating under advanced air defense networks at ranges of up to 190 nautical miles, the missile can be carried inside the stealth F-35 fighter jet’s internal weapons bay. This allows the jet, which Denmark operates, to maintain its stealth capabilities.
Denmark will also purchase Covenant Corp.’s Anthem ground-launched cruise missile. Designed to match affordability with lethality, Anthem has a range of more than 900 miles.
Denmark is sending a signal of strategic intent: It would fight hard for NATO from zero hour.
Responding to any future Russian attack on NATO, Danish F-35s could employ Joint Strike Missiles to threaten Russian naval forces across the Baltic Sea. Anthem missiles could hit Russian mainland targets from launch positions inside Denmark. They would complement NATO air and artillery power in annihilating Russian forces in Kaliningrad and supporting the alliance’s immediate response forces. Its bluster notwithstanding, Russia knows this. These weapons are thus priceless tools of deterrence and military capability.
The money for these advanced weapons will come from Denmark’s significant defense budget, which is 3.4% of GDP, another sign of the country’s seriousness about pulling its weight in NATO. Indeed, Denmark seems set to meet President Donald Trump’s rightly ambitious target for NATO allies to spend at least 3.5% of GDP on defense in the very near future.
Copenhagen’s commitment shouldn’t be taken for granted. The U.S. will spend just 3.2% of GDP on defense in 2026, and other top U.S. allies, such as the United Kingdom and France, continue to skimp on defense spending.
It also bears noting that Denmark is doing these things after suffering nearly 18 months of Trump’s threats to steal its Greenland territory. Trump’s newly reached deal with Denmark over Greenland could easily have been reached without his intimidation antics. Those threats caused a tremendous loss of trust, and they put the U.S. military in the potential position of having to disobey what would have been unlawful orders to seize Greenland.
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True, as a percentage of GDP, Denmark does not spend as much on defense as Poland or the Baltic states. The front-loading of increases in Danish defense spending must also not give way to future cuts, as NATO is set to face a growing Russian threat. The economy-wide nature of Russian defense investments and Putin’s ingrained ideology suggest he will test NATO, whatever happens in Ukraine.
Still, Denmark is reminding us that it is an ally willing to put its people and its purse in common cause with America and our other allies. We should be grateful for it.