Denmark eyes additional F-35 fighter jets, Patriot aid breakthrough for Ukraine

BELFAST — In a wide ranging discussion this week, Denmark’s defense minister Troels Lund Poulsen expressed interest in acquiring more F-35 fifth-generation fighter jets, secured an agreement on behalf of European nations to buy and donate 10 Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, as well as lease hours on Norway’s P-8 Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA).

Speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank on Tuesday, Lund Poulsen said that buying additional F-35 combat aircraft “will be the way forward,” though he did not disclose a specific quantity planned for order. He told local broadcaster TV 2 today, however, that at least 10 aircraft are set for purchase.

Denmark so far has ordered 27 F-35A jets: 15 have been delivered, six are based in the US for training, and six more will be delivered by the end of 2026, according to a Danish Air Command statement.

Elsewhere, Lund Poulsen shared that talks between the US and a number of unidentified European countries are likely to lead to a new Patriot purchase to then donate the 10 systems to Ukraine.

“The most important part right now is that Europe would be able to buy military equipment here in the US, so we can donate these military systems directly to Ukraine, and there’s also discussion going on right now,” said Lund Poulsen at CSIS. “I think [President Donald] Trump is on the right path here. I think he has promised that would be a possibility, we are talking in these hours about 10 Patriot systems.”

On the potential for a breakthrough he said, “That’s important, because the discussions two months ago was, in fact, that there were no more to buy here in the US. So the outcome of a discussion right now is moving in a better direction.”

Ukraine has repeatedly urged supply partners to urgently deliver additional air defense systems in the face of Russian bombardment. And Trump appeared to open the way for further supplies of Patriot systems when he told reporters at the NATO Summit, “we’re going to see if we can make some available … they’re very hard to get.”

On Monday, ahead of a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC, Trump went further by sharing with media that “We’re going to send some more weapons” to Ukraine, seemingly lifting a pause on military aid to Kyiv. “We have to — they have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard.”

Reuters also reported last week that Germany Chancellor Friedrich Merz raised the possibility of buying Patriots from the US during a phone call with Trump.

Besides air defense matters, after launching a “number of analyses” as part of a supplemental defense agreement last year — including a potential replacement effort for four CL-604 Challenger aircraft used for surveillance, search and rescue and VIP transport missions — Copenhagen appears to have settled on a preferred way forward.

“Right now, we are looking into buying [flight] hours from the P-8 system … for capacity,” said Lund Poulsen. They have [the aircraft] in Norway and Germany and [we do] not [have interest in] buying it ourselves, but buying hours” alone.

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s foreign affairs minister, accompanying Lund Poulsen on his US visit, said that the Danish officials had not held “intense” discussions with the US related to the future of Greenland, out of respect for a “nothing about Greenland without Greenland” policy. Trump has threatened to buy or take the self-ruled territory by force in the past.

“I can’t get rid of the idea that there’s also just this vision of creating a bigger US [under Trump’s Greenland annexation plan] and we can’t of course” accommodate that, said Løkke Rasmussen.

He added, “We [Denmark and the US] share the view that we have to be present in the Arctic in a different way, but it shouldn’t be a fight between the Kingdom of Denmark, and [the] US, it should be by combining forces, and we have the framework for that.”