Denmark signals plan to join European air refueling pool, buy tankers

PARIS — Denmark indicated plans to join a European pool of air-to-air refueling tankers, including the potential purchase of two Airbus A330 MRTT refueling aircraft, with Danish participation in the joint capacity estimated to cost about 7.4 billion Danish kroner ($1.1 billion) over the 2025-2033 period.

Danish Chief of Defence Gen. Michael Hyldgaard has recommended Denmark become a partner in the six-nation Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet, initially through the purchase of flight hours for air refueling, followed by negotiations to buy a share in the pool equivalent to two refueling aircraft, the Ministry of Defence said on March 25 .

Aerial refueling is one of several critical defense enablers where Europe partly relies on U.S. capacities, a dependency that appears increasingly risky as the American government disengages from Europe. The stakes may be even higher for Denmark, as U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

The Danish air force operates F-16 and F-35 fighter jets.

The tanker capacity will strengthen the air defense of Denmark and “increase the fighting power of the Danish defense, including our national operational needs,” Danish Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen said. “For example, air refueling capacity creates the precondition for operations with combat aircraft in the Arctic and the North Atlantic.”

The Danish government in February agreed to allocate an additional 50 billion kroner to defense over the coming two years, boosting defense spending to more than 3% of GDP in 2025 and 2026.

The multinational tanker fleet consists of nine MRTT aircraft, owned and managed by NATO, pooling the resources of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Norway, Belgium and Czechia. The six European countries have one more tanker on order for delivery in 2026.

Poelsen said “there is good potential for Nordic cooperation in the field” of air refueling.

The fleet is operated from Eindhoven in the Netherlands, with aircraft also stationed in Cologne, Germany, both around 460 kilometers southwest of the Danish border. The joint tanker fleet was first proposed in 2012, and initiated by the European Defence Agency to address what NATO calls a “long-standing shortfall” in European air-to-air refueling capacity.

The Airbus A330 MRTT is a multirole aircraft that in addition to carrying 110 metric tons of kerosene can also be used to transport passengers or cargo, with a 45-ton payload capacity. The aircraft can use a boom to refuel aircraft including the F-16 and F-35, and a probe and drogue system for Eurofighter, Tornado, F-18, Gripen and Rafale.

Germany is the biggest user of the joint tanker fleet in terms of flight hours, ahead of Belgium and the Netherlands. The fleet started with the Netherlands and Luxembourg jointly buying two A330 MRTTs in 2016, with five additional aircraft ordered in 2017 after Germany and Norway joined the project, with additional tankers ordered in following years after Belgium and Czechia joined.

In addition to the six-nation pool, the other A330 MRTT operators in Europe are France with a fleet of 12 of the aircraft and three more on order, and the U.K. with 14 tankers, according to Airbus data at the end of February.

Denmark’s chief of defense also proposes to invest around 4.7 billion kroner in the 2025-2033 period to accelerate the buildup of the Army’s 1st Brigade into a heavy brigade by three to five years, with the construction of two infantry companies, a tactical drone section, a mechanical engineering company and off-road trucks.

Denmark said it established an air-defense wing at the Flyvestation Skalstrup military facility, ahead of the acquisition of ground-based air defenses, according to a separate statement on Wednesday. The country officially decommissioned the air defense units operating Hawk missile systems there in 2005.

The government said it will look for an interim air-defense solution that can be delivered as early as this year or next year, and pick the system for a permanent solution this year, with a target to finalize the contract by the end of 2025.

Denmark earlier this month shortlisted the French-Italian SAMP/T and the U.S. Patriot system to cover the high end of the threat spectrum in its planned purchase of air defense systems, while MBDA’s VL MICA system, Kongsberg’s NASAMS, the IRIS-T SLM from Diehl Defence and the U.S. IFPC. are in competition for the lower end.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——丹麦表示计划加入欧洲空中加油机联盟，包括可能购买两架空客A330 MRTT加油机。据估计，丹麦参与该联合加油能力项目在2025年至2033年期间将耗资约74亿丹麦克朗（11亿美元）。

丹麦国防部3月25日表示，丹麦国防部长迈克尔·希尔德加德将军建议丹麦加入由六个国家组成的多国多用途加油运输机队，最初通过购买空中加油飞行小时数，然后进行谈判，购买相当于两架加油机的股份。

空中加油是欧洲在国防领域依赖美国能力的几项关键技术之一，而随着美国政府逐渐减少对欧洲的投入，这种依赖的风险似乎越来越大。对于丹麦而言，风险可能更高，因为美国总统唐纳德·特朗普曾多次威胁要吞并格陵兰岛——丹麦的自治领土。

丹麦空军装备有F-16和F-35战斗机。

丹麦国防大臣特罗尔斯·伦德·波尔森表示，加油机的运力将加强丹麦的防空能力，“提升丹麦国防的战斗力，满足我们的国家作战需求”。他补充道：“例如，空中加油能力为在北极和北大西洋地区开展作战行动创造了先决条件。”

丹麦政府在 2 月份同意在未来两年内额外拨款 500 亿克朗用于国防，使 2025 年和 2026 年的国防开支占 GDP 的比例超过 3%。

这支多国联合加油机队由九架MRTT飞机组成，由北约拥有和管理，汇集了荷兰、卢森堡、德国、挪威、比利时和捷克的资源。这六个欧洲国家还订购了一架加油机，将于2026年交付。

波尔森表示，“北欧在空中加油领域有着良好的合作潜力”。

该机队以荷兰埃因霍温为基地运营，并在德国科隆也设有基地，两地均位于丹麦边境西南约460公里处。联合加油机队最初于2012年提出，由欧洲防务局发起，旨在解决北约所称的欧洲空中加油能力“长期不足”的问题。

空客A330 MRTT是一款多用途飞机，除了可运载110吨煤油外，还可用于客运或货运，有效载荷达45吨。该飞机可使用伸缩式加油管为F-16和F-35等战机进行空中加油，并可使用探管式加油系统为欧洲战斗机、旋风战斗机、F-18战斗机、鹰狮战斗机和阵风战斗机进行空中加油。

就飞行小时数而言，德国是联合加油机队的最大用户，领先于比利时和荷兰。该机队最初由荷兰和卢森堡于2016年联合购买两架A330 MRTT加油机组成，2017年德国和挪威加入该项目后，又订购了五架飞机，随后比利时和捷克也相继加入，并在之后几年订购了更多加油机。

除了这六个国家之外，根据空客公司2月底的数据，欧洲其他A330 MRTT运营商还有法国（拥有12架飞机，另有3架订单）和英国（拥有14架加油机）。

丹麦国防部长还提议在 2025 年至 2033 年期间投资约 47 亿克朗，将陆军第一旅扩建为重型旅的速度加快三到五年，建设两个步兵连、一个战术无人机分队、一个机械工程连和越野卡车。

丹麦周三在一份声明中表示，在采购地面防空系统之前，已在斯卡尔斯特鲁普空军基地组建了一个防空部队。该国于2005年正式解散了在该基地使用“鹰”式导弹系统的防空部队。

政府表示，将寻求一个最早可于今年或明年交付的临时防空解决方案，并于今年选定一个永久性解​​决方案系统，目标是在 2025 年底前完成合同签订。

本月初，丹麦将法国-意大利的SAMP/T和美国的爱国者系统列入其计划采购的防空系统高端威胁应对方案的候选名单，而MBDA的VL MICA系统、康斯伯格的NASAMS、迪尔防务的IRIS-T SLM和美国的IFPC则在低端威胁应对方案的竞争中展开角逐。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。