Denmark to join Nato's missile defense system

Denmark has decided to join NATO's missile defence system, local media reported Friday.

 

Denmark will contribute at least one frigate to NATO's missile defense shield, the country's Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard said after a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday afternoon.

"We will offer that one and more of our frigates can be outfitted with a radar that can be part of the missile defence. There was wide support for that (in the Foreign Affairs Committee)," Lidegaard was cited as saying by Denmark's newspaper Berlingske Tidende.

Denmark's Defense Minister Nikolai Wammen emphasized that the decision to join the missile defence system is not an action aimed at Russia.

"It is to protect the Danes against rogues states, terrorist organisations and others that have the capacity to fire missiles at Europe and the US," he said.

According to Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, it will cost some 400-500 million Danish kroner (71-89 million U.S. dollars) to equip Danish frigates with advanced radar equipment.

At the meeting, the Foreign Affairs Committee also decided that Denmark will send weapons and a contingent of troops to Iraq to fight the extremist Islamic State.

Denmark to upgrade its F-16 aircraft with LITENING G4 Targeting Pods

The Danish Ministry of Defence announced that it has selected Northrop Grumman’s LITENING G4 targeting system for its F-16 fighter aircraft. First deliveries are expected in August 2013. The Litening G4 pods will be supplied with datalinks and full logistics support package.

LITENING G4 Advanced Targeting Pod is the latest version of the Litening targeting pod developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Rafael has teamed with Northrop Grumman to develop and market the pods in the US and international market. The team has successfully won contracts in a number of key markets in the United States, with F/A-18 operators including Australia, Finland and Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Israel as users of the Northrop Grumman LITENING family of targeting pods.

The G4 version delivers the latest advancements in sensor, laser imaging and data link technology. The G4′s technologies include true megapixel (1kx1k) forward-looking infrared and charge-coupled device sensors, short wave infrared laser imaging sensor, color symbology, tracker improvements and enhanced zoom. These advancements deliver more accurate target identification and location at longer ranges than previous generations of LITENING targeting pod systems while reducing pilot workload.