Denmark to Set Up New Warship Building Facility at Frederikshavn

Danish political parties have reached a landmark agreement to establish a new warship construction facility in Frederikshavn, home to one of the country's two main naval bases.

The move is part of Denmark's broader defense modernization initiative and addresses long-standing gaps in domestic warship production capability.

“Although Denmark is a large maritime nation with proud traditions in shipping and shipbuilding, we do not currently have shipyards that can be used to build or assemble larger maritime capabilities,” said Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen. “The new facility follows up on the political ambition to build military ships in Denmark, which we agreed on in the Partial Agreement on a Navy Plan in the spring.”

The facility will include physical infrastructure to support the construction of large military ships. As part of the agreement, a decision-making framework will be developed to evaluate time, cost, and technical risks across various construction and project management models before finalizing shipbuilding strategies.

The location of Frederikshavn was selected based on expert military and logistical assessments. Its proximity to an existing naval station provides opportunities to integrate lessons from ship construction into long-term operation and maintenance processes.

In parallel, the Danish Parliament has also allocated DKK 3.4 billion ($535 million) to a surveillance pool aimed at strengthening Denmark’s intelligence and response capacity. This includes potential investments in expanded satellite capabilities and geographical monitoring systems.

“In a world where the security situation is evolving day by day, it is crucial that the Armed Forces have the ability and opportunity to keep up,” Poulsen added. “Strengthened surveillance and satellite capacity plays a central role in our ability to detect, identify and respond to threats and incidents.”

The satellite and surveillance upgrades are expected to support both military and civilian operations, including maritime safety, environmental monitoring, and search and rescue missions.