Denmark fast-tracked Lockheed radars for northern air surveillance

MILAN — A recent $610 million order placed by Denmark for air surveillance radars to be stationed across Danish territory was sole-sourced to U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin in the “essential security interests” of the country, according to newly published contract documents.

The Danish Ministry of Defense Acquisition and Logistics Organization, or DALO, purchased three TPY-4 fixed air defense radars from the American company in December, with the option to procure a fourth one.

The government plans to station these in Skagen (the northern tip of Denmark), Bornholm (in the Baltic Sea), the Faroe Islands, and possibly in eastern Greenland to extend the country’s aerial surveillance reach.

In the past, this area of Greenland has had limited surveillance and remains one of the most isolated and sparsely populated parts of the Arctic.

“DALO assesses that the contract could be awarded directly for the protection of the essential interests of Denmark’s security to Lockheed Martin. …The radars constitute a core element of the country’s air surveillance, and the capability is thus essential to the effective functioning of its national air defense,” a Jan. 20 notice published on the Tenders Electronics Daily, a European Union-affiliated public procurement platform, said.

Tensions have been brewing between Denmark and the United States over President Donald Trump’s fixation with taking control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

On Jan. 21, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump clarified during a speech that he does not intend to use military action to acquire Greenland

Several of Denmark’s Nordic neighbors have also purchased Lockheed’s TPY-4 ground-based radar. Sweden ordered an undisclosed number of units in June 2025, and Norway procured additional units in 2024, now operating 11 of them.