Hybrid warfare and drones cause Poland to buy Danish hardware for 625 million kroner in North Zealand
With a new massive order, radar manufacturer Weibel Scientific from Allerød plays a key role in two European weapons projects.
Archive photo of Ukrainian soldiers who have shot down a Russian drone with a donated German Gepard anti-aircraft gun, invented during the Cold War. Now radar manufacturer Weibel is to supply hardware for a modern Polish defense system against drones specifically. (Photo: © Roman Pilipey, AFP/Ritzau Scanpix) Mads Korsager Nielsen ( [email protected] ) Defense correspondent 58 minutes ago
They have just sold radars for over half a billion Danish kroner to the American military.
Now radar manufacturer Weibel Scientific from Allerød is ready with yet another record order.
This time it is Poland's defense that has ordered so-called anti-drone radars from the Danish manufacturer for 625 million kroner.
Read also: Special drone radar spotted in Copenhagen Airport ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/saerlig-droneradar-spottet-i-koebenhavns-lufthavn )
The defense company is thus set to play a key role in the realization of a so-called drone wall worth billions, which Poland is building along its borders with, among others, Russian Kaliningrad, Belarus, and Ukraine.
- That Poland chooses our radar in close competition with others is a huge stamp of quality that we are proud of, says Weibel's CEO Peter Røpke to DR.
The new order from Poland's military is the largest order in Weibel's history and among the largest that a Danish defense company has sold to a foreign defense customer in a long time.
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Expects more orders
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Weibel is to build and ship an unknown number of units of its so-called Xenta radar, which is specialized in detecting and recognizing drones. The delivery to Poland's drone wall may lead to further orders. Poland is not the only country that is building a so-called drone wall.
The EU is working for that to happen across Europe. The goal is to create a coherent system of sensors, surveillance, and weapon systems so that hostile drones can be detected and neutralized jointly.
According to Peter Røpke, Weibel is in dialogue with several countries, and that interest is only expected to increase further once it becomes known that Poland has chosen the Danish radar for its drone wall.
Lithuania's national security advisor Deividas Matulionis tells DR that the hybrid threat from drones is among the biggest threats from Russia. A threat that all countries along NATO and the EU's eastern flank are putting a lot of effort into neutralizing.
Also Lithuania.
- It is important to complete the drone walls, even though the technological challenge is great. Among other things, we assess that Russia can fire captured Ukrainian drones at itself in Kaliningrad. In order to get a pretext to shoot back. Therefore it is important to have an overview of what is flying in the air, says Deividas Matulionis.
Read also: Ministry of Defence gives controversial company permission to retain and expand test center previously declared illegal ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/forsvarsministeriet-giver-omstridt-virksomhed-lov-til-udvide-i-nordsjaelland )
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Danish company involved in two projects
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With the order from Poland, Weibel from Allerød now plays a role in two of the most important European defense projects right now: The Drone Wall and Project Freya, which is about creating a European alternative to the US Patriot air defense.
The American Patriot system is among the few that can effectively counter the so-called ballistic missiles that fly toward the target at high speed.
According to Peter Røpke, the success is partly due to Weibel having focused on making so-called Doppler radars. That is a special type of radar that measures the speed of an object rather than just the distance to it, which is what other radars typically do.
- It is a technology that we have stubbornly held onto through good times and bad. The technology gives us more information about the objects we are looking at with the radar, and it is very well suited to the needs that exist now, says Peter Røpke.
- We can pinpoint a target very accurately, whether it is a drone or another object in the air moving very fast, says the CEO.
Archive photo. CEO Peter Røpke from Weibel Scientific with an anti-drone radar, which Poland's military has just ordered. (Photo: © Peter Maunsbach, Ritzau Scanpix)
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Must double production
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The orders heading for the headquarters and factory halls in North Zealand mean concretely that the company is constantly expanding, explains Peter Røpke.
- Every single month we hire 20-25 new employees. We have already scaled up massively, but this only means we need to ramp up even more in the near future.
The CEO explains that the company has just doubled its office space, expanded and streamlined production of anti-drone radars, and plans to double production capacity for another radar type.
According to Peter Røpke, Weibel's development is a sign that Denmark's defense industry has become different than before.
- We can be proud that as a Danish company we can deliver hardware for something that has to work at the sharp end, and that Danish technology can make itself count in areas that are important for European security, he says.
With the success also comes a downside. Namely the threat from Russia, which according to the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (FE) and the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) has especially targeted defense companies.
- We know it. I can't say much more than that we are aware of it. We have a strong focus on the company's security and closely follow the authorities' instructions, says Peter Røpke.
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