Signal No. 174 · Anthem: Denmark buys a cruise missile to be built in Germany
Denmark is buying Anthem ground-launched cruise missiles, to be built in Germany, and Joint Strike Missiles for its F-35s. Bulgaria's chief of defence says NATO is working on a Turkish-led naval command for the Black Sea. RAF Typhoons escorted French Rafale B on a simulated nuclear strike.
STKARCDEZ Denmark buys Anthem ground-launched cruise missiles from Israeli-American Covenant, to be built in Germany; price, quantity and delivery dates not given
Danish Ministry of Defence 22 Oct · TV 2 (Denmark) 22 Oct · Kongsberg 22 Oct · The Defense Post 11 Sep · Signal Nos. 142 and 166
Denmark's armed forces are acquiring Anthem, a ground-launched cruise missile from the Israeli-American company Covenant Industries, and Kongsberg's Joint Strike Missile for their F-35s, the defence ministry said on Thursday. The purchases follow the chief of defence's recommendation and are meant to strengthen national and collective deterrence. Kongsberg says scope and value for the JSM are still to be negotiated. At Thursday's press conference, Jeppe Bruus, the defence minister, and the parties to Denmark's defence agreement did not give the price or quantities. TV 2, the national broadcaster, said the Anthem missiles will be built in Germany; Covenant has said its Leipzig site will produce the missile from early 2027. Neither the ministry nor the company has published Anthem's range; reports put it above 1,000 kilometres.
Signal › Covenant said in September that it had one European customer under contract and did not name it; neither Copenhagen nor the company has said whether that is Denmark. In Germany, ministry planning documents named Anthem in June as one of three candidates for a low-cost cruise missile to be qualified in 2027, and in October reporting on the Army's plans named Anthem and a variant of the Ukrainian Bars. The procurement office's June request to Covenant is the only published German instrument.
SEAINTCEE Bulgaria's chief of defence says a NATO Black Sea naval command with Türkiye as lead nation is at an advanced stage
BTA 23 Oct, Stoyanov and Eftimov · Newsweek România 14 Oct, Miruță · Signal Nos. 171 and 173
Admiral Emil Eftimov, Bulgaria's chief of defence, said on Friday at the BOLD ADRA 26 exercise at Cheshnegirovo air base that work was under way within NATO to set up a naval command in the Black Sea with Türkiye as lead nation, and that the project was at an advanced stage. Its aim, he said, is real-time situational awareness, force generation, analysis and action against a potential threat.
Signal › On 14 October Radu Miruță, then Romania's interim defence minister (he left office on 20 October), proposed to his Bulgarian counterpart a joint letter to NATO for a command of NATO's Black Sea coastal states, rotating in location and leadership, which Romania offered to lead and host from 2028. The Romanian, Bulgarian and Turkish navies already run a mine-countermeasures task group, whose extension to undersea infrastructure awaits Turkish ratification, and on Thursday the European Parliament asked NATO to consider a "Black Sea Sentry". Eftimov did not say which of these the command builds on, or when; neither NATO nor Ankara has announced it.
MDFINTAIR France and Britain: RAF Typhoons escort French Rafale B on a simulated nuclear strike, an exercise Paris places under the 2025 Northwood declaration
Zone Militaire 23 Oct, Rummy · Signal Nos. 105 and 145
France's strategic air forces and the Royal Air Force flew a joint exercise with a nuclear dimension on the evening of 20 October, the French armed forces ministry said on Friday. In the exercise, named Rummy, Rafale B of the 4th Fighter Wing took off from Saint-Dizier and were joined by RAF Typhoons, which escorted them over the Mediterranean to a simulated nuclear strike, supported by A330 MRTT tankers. The ministry places the exercise under the Northwood declaration of 10 July 2025. Catherine Vautrin, the armed forces minister: "Having independent nuclear forces does not exclude coordination."
Signal › On 17 July France and Germany agreed that German conventional forces would take part in a French nuclear exercise before the end of 2026, which press reporting identified as the Poker series. Poker runs four times a year; none with German participation has been disclosed so far.
Procurement · Industry · Capability
INTRUCDIN NATO's procurement agency: Ukraine joins its Security Cooperation Support Partnership
Ukraine has joined the NATO Support and Procurement Agency's Security Cooperation Support Partnership, the agency announced on Thursday. The partnership, set up in 2025, also groups Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, the UK and NATO headquarters. The agency has been able to contract directly with Ukrainian companies since the North Atlantic Council's approval in April.
ESUT 23 Oct, NSPA
GRDDINDEZ Netherlands: more Leguan bridgelayers through a German contract due in the first quarter of 2027, and a new breaching vehicle to replace the Kodiak
The Dutch defence ministry told parliament on Thursday that it will buy further Leguan armoured bridgelayers from KNDS Deutschland for an additional mechanised brigade, by joining a contract Germany expects to sign with the company in the first quarter of 2027. It also plans to replace the Kodiak engineer vehicle, in service since 2014, after rejecting a midlife update because of long lead times. No quantities were given.
hartpunkt 23 Oct, Netherlands
GRDDINPLB Lithuania approves the environmental assessment for Rheinmetall's Radviliškis shell plant
Lithuania's Environmental Protection Agency on Friday approved the environmental impact assessment for the Rheinmetall plant in Radviliškis district, designed to make up to 75,000 shells of 155 mm a year.
DINAIRARC Saab: third-quarter orders SEK 65.8 billion, sales up 30.6 per cent organically, operating profit up 42 per cent
Saab booked SEK 65.8 billion of orders in the third quarter, against SEK 20.9 billion a year earlier and SEK 68.4 billion in the second quarter. All three large orders were announced earlier: the SEK 24.6 billion Gripen E contract for Ukraine, signed on 30 June and booked in this quarter; SEK 10.1 billion for two GlobalEye for a Middle Eastern customer; and SEK 8.7 billion for systems for the F128 frigates. Sales rose to SEK 20.6 billion from SEK 15.9 billion, 30.6 per cent organically; operating profit rose 42 per cent to SEK 1.9 billion; operational cash flow was SEK 6.8 billion, against SEK 0.1 billion a year earlier.
Saab 23 Oct, Q3 results · Signal Nos. 94, 105, 107 and 110
Forward Look
Sunday 25 October: Bulgaria's presidential election (BTA 23 Oct). Friday 30 October: Bulgaria's expected accession to NATO's initiative against low-flying aerial threats; the European Parliament urged Sofia to confirm by that date, and Rumen Radev, the prime minister, rejected the deadline (Großwald 14 Oct, 22 Oct).
Further out: 4–5 November: the Nordic Compass summit in Gothenburg (EDR 20 Oct). Wednesday 4 November: the Constanța appeal court hears Damen's appeal over Mangalia (Großwald 14 Oct). Early or mid-November: Zelenskyy said on Friday he hoped Ukrainian and US teams would meet in Abu Dhabi for technical talks, with leaders' three-way talks possibly to follow (Ukrinform 23 Oct). Thursday 12 November: the Bundestag budget committee's final session on the 2027 budget (Bundestag). Thursday 26 November: the special European Council on the long-term budget, with the defence and space window at EUR 113 billion in the Irish draft (Großwald 13 Oct).
Watch: Danish quantities and price for Anthem and the JSM; a NATO or Turkish announcement of the Black Sea command; the Khoryv, sunk by a drone 13 nautical miles off Constanța on 23 October with one dead and three missing (HotNews 23 Oct), and Romania's account of whose drone it was and where it was launched from; the "additional equipment" Romania's president says is coming; the Wine Trader's seven missing and the HS Dignity's 11; the allied findings on the Chelsea-3 strike.
