Denmark to boost military spending to upgrade facilities

Denmark’s centrist government wants to spend 38 billion kroner ($5.6 billion) over the next decade to modernize military facilities, renovate shabby and dilapidated buildings, increase the number of soldiers and upgrade outdated computer systems.

Acting Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen called it “a very serious situation” and said on May 4 that previous governments and senior defense officials haven’t prioritized spending money on such facilities, AP reports.

“Are all responsible for the fact that we have ended up in this situation,” he said.

“For many years, the security policy situation has worn down the armed forces,” Lund Poulsen said. “We are now faced with a major task of restoring the foundation of the armed forces before we build on top of it.”

“We lack soldiers and many buildings are not up to date or are dilapidated. The same applies for part of our equipment and the computer systems,” Gen. Flemming Lentner, head of NATO-member Denmark’s armed forces, told the news conference.

An army base north of Copenhagen has problems with mold and a lack of maintenance. Heating in the offices doesn’t work and sometimes there is no hot water for showers, or very low water pressure, broadcaster TV2 reported. Oliver Hansen, a spokesman for conscripted soldiers, told TV2 that soldiers must be able to withstand difficult conditions in the field but “not in the barracks.”