Danish Home Guard stages biggest exercise since Berlin Wall fell

Up to 7,000 volunteer soldiers will take part in Denmark’s largest and most serious military exercise since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, DR reports.

The exercise, called Blåtand, will take place from October 1 to 4, with soldiers, weapons and military vehicles deployed in Aarhus, Odense, Aalborg, Esbjerg and several other towns in Jutland and Funen.

The aim is to train the Home Guard to respond to war, hybrid warfare and sabotage. The exercise follows the Danish Security and Intelligence Service’s disclosure of concrete Russian plans for sabotage operations on Danish soil.

For the first time, Home Guard units will train inside towns rather than at military training grounds or in remote forests. Soldiers will be visible in the streets and will carry weapons while moving around in public, said Major General Gunner Arpe Nielsen, chief of the Home Guard.

The scenarios will include evacuating a village in Jutland, with residents transported away from the area in trucks. Soldiers will also practise responding to major train accidents, evacuating shopping centres and guarding critical infrastructure.

“If we are to train for the tasks we must be able to handle, it is necessary,” Nielsen said.

The Home Guard will run an information campaign before the exercise, including placing signs on city buses.

Plans for a larger force

Classified government documents from the previous government, seen by DR, say that both the exercises and the Home Guard itself are intended to expand.

“The Ministry of Defence proposes that the Home Guard receive additional resources and be built into a larger and stronger Home Guard,” the documents state.

The plans were part of an agreement that the previous government was close to finalising shortly before the election was called. The proposed expansion could include new barracks or storage buildings.

Nielsen did not comment on any future agreement, but said the Home Guard was already expanding its weapons, equipment and drones. It aims to have 20,000 active soldiers by 2028.

More nationwide exercises planned

The exercise is linked directly to the current security situation, Nielsen said. Denmark’s Defence Intelligence Service has assessed that Russia is currently conducting hybrid warfare against NATO and the West, with a high risk of sabotage.

The exercise will be the first step towards increasingly large military exercises involving the Home Guard, the Army, the Air Force and the Navy.

Plans call for more soldiers, including Defence personnel, to take part next year. In 2028, the exercises could involve many thousands of soldiers in towns and cities across the country, Nielsen said.