How Denmark (May Have) Planned to Sabotage Greenland Before a US Invasion

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Danish special forces reportedly had a plan to disable Greenland’s runways in the event of a US military intervention, making it far more difficult to land large numbers of troops.

Months after President Donald Trump suspended his rhetorical campaign to obtain Greenland from Denmark, media reports have surfaced indicating that Copenhagen had developed plans to destroy key infrastructure on the island in the event of a US takeover attempt. The plans were developed in response to Trump’s repeated statements about acquiring Greenland, by force if necessary.

The implications here are significant: apparently for the first time in NATO’s nearly 80-year history, one member state was actively planning a sabotage operation against another, which had itself threatened to occupy the territory of that ally. Denmark’s sabotage plan wasn’t about defeating the United States—that was never plausible, given the vast size, population, and power differential between the two—but about denying access and raising the cost of intervention.

Denmark Could Have Kept US Troops Off Greenland—for a While

Greenland is vast and remote. It is 836,000 square miles (2.16 million square kilometers), making it about as large as Western Europe. 

Its infrastructure is limited, and therefore extremely important. In spite of the island’s size, it has few airfields capable of sustaining the large transport aircraft that form the backbone of the US military’s logistics infrastructure and would have been required to dispatch large numbers of troops from the US mainland. Critical nodes on Greenland include Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq; only Danish-controlled runways are capable of handling the US Air Force’s C-17 and C-130 transport aircraft. In other words, control of those crucial runways would determine access to the territory itself.

From a tactical perspective, in the event of US military action, the Danes would have immediately sought to destroy the runways using Jaegerkorps special forces units, which Copenhagen had deployed to the territory in January 2026. The mission would not have entailed defending the airfields, but executing a preemptive denial operation. The plan likely would have included identifying critical runway segments and detonating explosive charges at key intervals. In such a scenario, speed would have been the most vital element: Danish troops would have needed to act before US transports could arrive and execute a clean landing. 

It would have been enough to crater the runways, rather than totally destroying them; deep craters and structural damage would have made landing heavy transport aircraft impossible. Even the hardy C-130 would have been unable to use cratered runways. The craters wouldn’t have been trivial or an easy fix, either; Arctic conditions slow repairs, and the remote nature of Greenland means limited equipment would have been available. In other words, a few well-placed explosions could have shut down a Greenland airfield for weeks.

Denmark’s Plan Highlights the Perils of Distant Military Intervention

Denmark’s plan shows they recognized they could not defeat the US militarily and instead chose to raise the cost of intervention.

The denial strategy would have fared the US to use alternative entry methods to the island—most likely an amphibious landing at a future date. Danish forces on Greenland would not have had the strength to prevent this. But it would have required the United States to commit more forces, and generally accept a greater risk to action. As shown by the recent fire aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford, there are risks to deploying large numbers of troops around the world, even outside combat.

Psychologically, the destruction of Greenland’s runways and the need for a larger presence on the island could have been significant, turning an easy campaign against a weak ally into a more costly and committed operation. In modern warfare, infrastructure is a primary target, and access denial is as important as head-to-head combat power, especially when asymmetrical forces are in opposition.

The US gestures at seizing Greenland—and Denmark’s apparent plan to sabotage the airfields—speaks to the strategic value of Greenland, which will likely continue to attract great power interest in the coming years and decades. Of course, the extent the United States would have actually been deterred by Denmark’s sabotage operation remains an open question. In the future, great powers vying for control of Greenland, or other Arctic territories, will likely take note of Denmark’s willingness to sabotage critical infrastructure for the sake of access denial. 

About the Author: Harrison Kass

Harrison Kass is a senior defense and national security writer at The National Interest. Kass is an attorney and former political candidate who joined the US Air Force as a pilot trainee before being medically discharged. He focuses on military strategy, aerospace, and global security affairs. He holds a JD from the University of Oregon and a master’s in Global Journalism and International Relations from NYU.

© The National Interest