Nato has vowed to upgrade its mission in the Baltic Sea after Denmark’s armed forces said unidentified drones were seen near the country’s military installations overnight.
There have also been several drone incursions near airports and other critical infrastructure this week, with Copenhagen’s airport closed for several hours late on Monday as several drones were seen in its airspace.
Five smaller Danish airports – civilian and military – were closed temporarily during the week.
Nato said it would “conduct even more enhanced vigilance with new multi-domain assets in the Baltic Sea region”, according to a statement emailed to Reuters, adding that the new assets included “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms and at least one air-defence frigate”.
A Nato spokesperson would not provide details on which countries were contributing the extra assets.
The new assets will enhance Nato’s “Baltic Sentry” mission, launched in January in response to a string of incidents in which power cables, telecoms links and gas pipelines on the Baltic Sea floor had been damaged.
Nato countries have deployed frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones as part of the mission, to help protect critical infrastructure.
The alliance also launched the “Eastern Sentry” mission this month, to bolster the defence of Europe’s eastern flank in response to Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace.
The drone sightings have shocked Europe. Germany’s interior minister has said he wants to authorise its military to shoot down drones, while EU leaders are due to meet in Copenhagen next week and are expected to discuss how to improve Europe’s defences and support Ukraine.
On Friday, defence ministers from 10 EU countries agreed to strengthen eastern defences with a so-called “drone wall” to deter Russia.
On Saturday, Russia’s foreign ministry said the measures would lead to “an increase in military and political tensions on our continent”, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.
The ministry added that the plans amounted to “personal ambitions and political games of the EU’s ruling elites”.
The Danish public broadcaster DR reported that there were drones in the air inside and outside the fence of the Karup airbase about 8pm on Friday, according to Simon Skelkjær, spokesperson for the Central and West Jutland police.
Skelkjær said he could not comment on where the drones came from, adding: “We didn’t take them down.”
Karup airbase houses all the Danish armed forces’ helicopters, airspace surveillance and parts of the Danish defence command.
In Norway, Brynjar Stordal, a spokesperson for the country’s joint headquarters, told AFP they were investigating the sightings but “handling it as a drone sighting”.
At least two drones flew “for around an hour” in a restricted area close to Orland, the main base for Norway’s F-35 fighter jets and a key Nato base. “They were not engaged by us,” he said.
There was also a drone spotted late on Friday over Germany’s northern Schleswig-Holstein state, which borders Denmark, state interior minister Sabine Sütterlin-Waack told local broadcaster NDR.
Germany’s interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, said on Saturday that the threat from drones was “high” and the government was considering allowing the armed forces to shoot down drones under certain conditions. Police have the main responsibility for defending against drones.
Dobrindt told journalists in Berlin he wanted to revise air safety laws to allow the “shooting down of drones” by the armed forces, among other measures.
“It’s about being prepared so that critical infrastructure or large gatherings of people, for example, can be protected,” he said.
“What we are witnessing is an arms race – an arms race between drone threats and drone defence. We must prepare ourselves for this,” he added.
Copenhagen has also said it plans to acquire new enhanced capabilities to detect and neutralise drones.
Russia is the prime suspect behind the recent drone incursions. The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, on Thursday said: “There is one main country that poses a threat to Europe’s security, and it is Russia.”
Although no definitive proof has been provided to back this up, Denmark’s defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said on Thursday that the flights appeared to be “the work of a professional actor”.
The drone flights began just days after Denmark said last Wednesday it would acquire “long-range precision weapons” for the first time to counter the threat from Russia.
Denmark’s justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, said the aim of the attacks was “to spread fear, create division and frighten us”.
This follows similar drone activity over Romania and Poland in the last few weeks, as well as Russian fighter jets violating Estonian airspace, which has raised concerns over the security of northern Europe and its vulnerability to air attacks from Russia.
Moscow has denied breaching Nato’s airspace, calling the EU’s reaction a “hysteria” on Wednesday.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
