Denmark’s Home Guard will hold its largest military exercise since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, sending up to 7,000 armed volunteers into cities across Jutland and Funen from October 1 to 4.
The exercise is called “Blåtand” and is described by the Home Guard as the most serious Danish military drill since the Cold War, DR reports. Major General Gunner Arpe Nielsen, chief of Hjemmeværnet, says one has to go back to the Cold War to find something similar in character and scale.
As a new element, the volunteer soldiers will train inside built-up areas rather than in the military’s training grounds or remote forests. Soldiers, their weapons and military vehicles will be visible in Aarhus, Odense, Aalborg, Esbjerg and many other towns, according to Nielsen.
Scenarios during the four days include the evacuation of a village in Jutland, where residents are to be driven out of the area in trucks. Other tasks are major train accidents, the evacuation of shopping centers and the guarding of critical infrastructure.
Nielsen says armed soldiers walking in the streets is a new sight for many Danes who did not experience the Cold War. For that reason, the Home Guard is running an information campaign, including signs on city buses, in the weeks before the exercise.
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Link to threats against Denmark
According to the major general, the exercise is directly connected to the current threats against Denmark. Last week the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, PET, revealed that there had been concrete Russian plans to carry out sabotage on Danish soil as part of hybrid warfare.
In its latest assessment, the Danish Defence Intelligence Service, FE, states that Russia is conducting a hybrid war against NATO and the West and that the sabotage threat is high. FE also concludes that the hybrid threat from Russia against NATO will very likely grow in the coming years.
Classified papers point to a larger force
Classified government papers from the previous government, which DR has seen, state that the Ministry of Defence proposes additional resources for a larger and stronger Home Guard. The documents mention new barracks or storage facilities through construction of new establishments.
The plans were part of an agreement that was close to being finalized before the election was called, per DR. Nielsen has no comment on a possible future agreement, but says the force is already expanding with new weapons, new equipment and drones, aiming for 20,000 active soldiers in 2028.
This year’s exercise is described as the first step toward progressively larger drills involving the Home Guard, the Army, the Air Force and the Navy. Nielsen says the plan is to expand the exercise next year and to have several thousand soldiers in the streets in 2028.
