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Denmark's Combat Vehicles So Worn-Out They Must Be Driven by Truck, Report Says

Sputnik News

20220401
Igor Kuznetsov

Due to their poor condition, Danish infantry combat vehicles are only allowed to drive a maximum of 1,800 kilometres over a three-year period, which amounts to 1.6 kilometres per day.

A recent report by the newspaper Berlingske has identified significant wear and tear on Danish combat vehicles, to the point of the military deliberately limiting their use to save on the kilometres.

The Danish military's 45 infantry combat vehicles (IKKs) were slated for an upgrade in 2021, but won't be modernised until 2030 at the earliest.

The 32-tonne vehicles are so worn-out that the Armed Forces regulate the distance the soldiers are allowed to drive them. If they have to be moved from one place to another, they're lifted onto the back of a truck, Berlingske reported, citing military documents.

Overall, an IKK is allowed to drive a maximum of 1,800 kilometres over a three-year period, which amounts to 1.6 kilometres per day.

"During drills when we had to move IKKs three to five kilometres we would previously just drive them. But today we often move them by truck to save on kilometres," Palle Bo Svendsen, lieutenant colonel and deputy commander of the Army's 1st Brigade, told Berlingske.

According to the newspaper, the fuel tanks are leaking, there are cracks in the fittings and damaged parts.

The problem is neither new, nor unfamiliar. In 2011, a third of Danish IKKs of the type CV9035 were out of order, according to Berlingske. In 2018, the Parliament was briefed by the Defence Academy about challenges involving operating costs and demanding training routines for the IKKs, because only 45 of the expensive combat vehicles had been purchased.

In 2020, NATO slammed Denmark for not having enough IKKs in the medium-heavy brigade that the Danes had pledged to provide. Finally, in January 2022, a staff note from the Armed Forces identified a substantial level of wear and tear as a result of consequential damage and lack of upgrade.

However, then-Defence Minister Trine Bramsen was unperturbed by the criticism.

"We have tanks instead. It is the the task they have to perform that counts first and foremost. That we have the capacities that are needed. That they can solve the tasks that they have to. And not the brand on the back end," Trine Bramsen said, addressing the criticism.

The first of the 45 CV9035 armoured vehicles in service in Denmark were delivered in 2007, developed and produced by BAE Systems Hägglunds in Sweden. In addition to their country of origin, the vehicles are also in service in Norway, Finland, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

© Sputnik