Revised Borris drone report wins credibility as defence faces criticism

A revised Danish Defence report on soldiers firing at suspected drones over Borris military camp has been called credible, but the military faces criticism for taking more than a year to explain the incident, DR reports.

Peter Ernstved Rasmussen, founder and editor-in-chief of the defence news site OLFI, questioned why it took a year and two reports to provide an account that people could trust. He said the way the case was communicated had badly damaged the military’s credibility.

In June, the Defence presented its first report on the September 2025 incident. Neighbours of the military firing range later showed TV 2 messages that raised questions about the report’s timeline. On Thursday, Army Command chief Peter Boysen presented a revised report correcting the times and adding details.

The Defence now says it cannot rule out that commercial aircraft were in the area when soldiers fired at suspected drones. However, it says the aircraft was beyond the range of the projectiles and was not fired upon.

Peter Viggo Jakobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College’s Institute for Strategy, said the initial timeline had been imprecise. But he said the revised evaluation included enough concrete information and explanations to make the account credible.

The report describes drone sightings over several days while Ukrainian soldiers were attending a course at the camp. Rasmussen said he understood why troops had been particularly alert, and that he was now convinced they had not fired at an aircraft. Jakobsen said the soldiers appeared to have carried out their orders reasonably.

Questions remain, Rasmussen said, including the lack of documentation confirming the soldiers’ sightings and the absence of information about who may have flown the drones. He added that the military’s incomplete communications, alongside reports of drones near Copenhagen Airport and elsewhere, had helped create an impression of “drone panic” among Danish authorities.