Denmark receives four more F-35s; half of fleet now home after delays

PARIS — Denmark received four more F-35 fighter jets on Thursday, with more than half of the country’s ordered fleet of stealth aircraft now stationed on Danish soil, after delivery had been delayed as manufacturer Lockheed Martin struggled to implement an upgrade for the plane.

The four jets joined the fighter wing at Skrydstrup air base after a delivery flight from the Lockheed Martin factories in Texas via the Azores, bringing the number of repatriated F35s to 15, the Danish Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Friday.

The country has ordered 27 of the fighters, of which six are stationed at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona for training. The remaining six aircraft that will complete the order are scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2026, the defense ministry said.

“With the arrival of the four aircraft yesterday, we have taken another step towards building up the combat capability of the F-35 aircraft,” said Maj. Gen. Jan Dam, the commander of the Royal Danish Air Force.

Lockheed Martin deliveries of F-35 jets were delayed last year due to issues with the so-called Technology Refresh 3 upgrade, or TR-3. That left Denmark scrambling for options to meet F-35 rollout milestones and expand its locally based fleet beyond four aircraft, eventually prompting a decision in June to fly the country’s training aircraft home.

After the Minister of Defence had to inform the government last year that the delivery delays could affect the F-35 program milestones, “the outlook now looks different,” the MoD said.

Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told business newspaper Borsen in March that he wanted to order more F-35 jets, despite threats by U.S. President Donald Trump targeting the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland, with the minister saying Denmark is too small to operate several types of fighter jets.

The Danish Air Force has started to use the F-35 to take over some air-policing missions from the country’s aging F-16 fleet, with the new jets flying their first mission to intercept a Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea in late March. The country plans to phase out the F-16 for air defense by the end of 2025, according to the MoD.

Danish F-35s took part in the NATO exercise Ramstein Flag from March 31 to April 11, their first participation in a major exercise, operating from the air base at Skrydstrup.

Denmark has pledged to donate F-16s to Ukraine as part of a coalition with the Netherlands and Norway.

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——周四，丹麦又接收了四架F-35战斗机，至此，该国订购的隐形战机机队中超过一半已部署在丹麦境内。此前，由于制造商洛克希德·马丁公司难以实施该型战机的升级，交付工作有所延迟。

丹麦国防部周五在一份声明中表示，这四架战斗机从德克萨斯州洛克希德·马丁公司的工厂经亚速尔群岛交付后，已抵达斯克里德斯特鲁普空军基地，加入战斗机联队，使回国的F-35战斗机数量达到15架。

该国已订购27架战斗机，其中6架部署在亚利桑那州卢克空军基地用于训练。国防部表示，剩余的6架飞机将于2026年底前交付完毕，以完成订单。

“随着昨天四架飞机的到来，我们在提升F-35飞机的作战能力方面又迈出了一步，”丹麦皇家空军司令扬·达姆少将说。

去年，由于所谓的“技术更新3”（TR-3）升级出现问题，洛克希德·马丁公司交付的F-35战机被推迟。这使得丹麦不得不紧急寻找各种方案，以满足F-35的部署里程碑，并将其本土机队规模扩大到四架以上，最终促使丹麦在6月份决定将该国的训练飞机全部运回国内。

国防部表示，去年国防部长不得不告知政府，交付延误可能会影响 F-35 项目的里程碑，“现在情况看起来有所不同”。

国防部长特罗尔斯·伦德·波尔森 (Troels Lund Poulsen) 3 月份告诉商业报纸《博尔森报》(Borsen)，尽管美国总统唐纳德·特朗普威胁要对丹麦自治领地格陵兰岛采取行动，但他仍希望订购更多 F-35 战斗机。这位部长表示，丹麦太小，无法操作多种类型的战斗机。

丹麦空军已开始使用F-35战机接替该国老旧的F-16战机执行部分空中警戒任务。3月下旬，F-35战机首次执行任务，在波罗的海上空拦截了一架俄罗斯军用飞机。丹麦国防部表示，该国计划在2025年底前逐步淘汰F-16战机用于防空作战。

丹麦的 F-35 战机于 3 月 31 日至 4 月 11 日参加了北约“拉姆施泰因旗帜”演习，这是它们首次参加大型演习，演习从斯克里德斯特鲁普空军基地起飞。

丹麦已承诺向乌克兰捐赠F-16战斗机，作为与荷兰和挪威组成的联盟的一部分。

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。