PARIS --- The Danish defense ministry on Thursday initialed a contract with Israeli manufacturer Elbit Systems for the supply of 155mm tube artillery and multiple rocket launchers worth over DKK 1.7 billion, according to the Danish Altinget news website.
The contract was signed exactly a week after the Danish cabinet announced it would donate to Ukraine all 19 Caesar 155mm truck-mounted howitzers it had ordered from France’s Nexter. The deal signed with Elbit is intended to replace them.
"The donation to Ukraine leaves a critical capacity gap in the Armed Forces. It is therefore very good and important news that the government and a broad majority of the parties in the Danish Parliament have agreed to acquire not only new artillery systems, but also rocket launch systems as soon as possible,” Defense Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen said during a Jan. 26 press conference.
Subject to approval by the Danish Parliament’s finance committee, Denmark will now procure from Elbit 19 Atmos eight-wheeled, 155mm self-propelled howitzers worth DKK 805 million ($117.6 million) as well as eight PULS multiple rocket launchers worth DKK 940 million ($137.7 million), Altinget reported citing several unidentified sources.
The package, negotiated by the head of the defense ministry’s Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organization (DALO), Lt Gen Kim Jesper Jørgensen, is consequently worth a total of DKK 1.748 billion, or $255.3 million, Altinget reported.
Elbit costs more but delivers faster
Denmark opted for Israeli-made weapons because their much shorter delivery times will allow the country to meet its obligation to set up and put at NATO’s disposal a mechanized brigade by January 1, 2024.
While Elbit will complete deliveries of both weapons by late 2024, Nexter needed 24 months to deliver 19 Caesars, which would have cost DKK 665 million, while the third competitor, South Korea’s Hanwha defense, needed 30 months to deliver the same number of K9 Thunder tracked howitzers.
Elbit will deliver the first ATMOS - a loaned vehicle for initial crew training - during the spring, with 12 production guns to follow in early 2024 and the final seven in the fall.
The eight PULS rocket launchers will be delivered two at a time from June this year until February 2024, meaning the Danish Army’s artillery units will be fully reequipped in less than one year.
This will allow the Danish medium mechanized brigade to be fully equipped and made available for NATO missions by the agreed deadline.
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