NATO said on Saturday it is upgrading its mission in the Baltic Sea with an air-defence frigate and other assets in response to drone incursions in Denmark, News.az reports citing CNN.
Unidentified drones were observed near military installations in Denmark overnight, the armed forces said, after several incursions near airports and critical infrastructure this week. Copenhagen Airport, the Nordic region's busiest, was closed for several hours on Monday as large drones entered its airspace. Five smaller Danish airports, both civilian and military, were also temporarily shut.
In response, NATO said it will "conduct even more enhanced vigilance with new multi-domain assets in the Baltic Sea region". The new assets include "intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms and at least one air-defence frigate", the alliance added. A NATO spokesperson declined to specify which countries were contributing the extra assets.
The assets will reinforce NATO's "Baltic Sentry" mission, launched in January after undersea power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines in the Baltic were damaged. Frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones have been deployed to help protect critical infrastructure.
This month, NATO also began its "Eastern Sentry" mission to bolster Europe's eastern flank in response to Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace.
