laststandonzombieisland

For better or worse, with all the drama over a proposed U.S. purchase of Greenland, the Danish military has gotten aggressive over showing that it is ready to protect the massive frozen landmass.

In recent weeks– and the first such deployment to Greenland since 2014– the Royal Danish Air Force has dispatched a Bombardier CL-604 Challenger (tail C-172) and four F-16AMs (E-007, E-018, E-101, and E-605) under the control of the Arktisk Kommando.

Based at Kangerlussuaq, they were shepherded over the Atlantic, the 2,100 miles from their base at Vojens-Skrydstrup, by a French A330 MRTT tanker, which is sticking around as part of NATO.

They have been patrolling over Nuk and up and down the East Coast.

They also made a 600nm deployment across Greenland to Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule AB) to spend a couple of hours with the U.S. personnel.

Check out this 10-minute patrol video from one of the F-16s’ cockpits.

There have also been increased visits by RDN warships and an exercise that included assets of the Specialoperationskommandoen via a C-130.

The commandos, seen in the video below, are fronted by local Territorials, who have been ramping up.

Note that the video is in English. Just saying.

The Danish Home Guard (Hjemmeværnet), which numbers some 44,000 volunteers in Denmark, has activated small groups to support operations in exercises in Greenland in recent years, but doesn’t have HJV units among Greenland’s cities and towns.

The new six-month Arktisk basisuddannelse (Arctic Basic Education) civil defense/auxiliary police style course, also based in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, and staffed with a dozen instructors and support personnel, has been stood up.

The program has been recruiting youth from among 13 towns and settlements across Greenland and graduated its first 19 students in November 2024.

The country has also just entered into an agreement to purchase four MQ-9B SkyGuardians for use in Greenland.

You have to admit, at least Copenhagen is trying.