F-16 deployed many times in 2024

By the Danish Defence Command

The number of activations of the Danish Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) has been high in 2024.

Danish F-16 fighter jets took off 81 times to investigate and monitor aircraft entering Denmark's areas of interest. It is important to emphasize that an activation of the QRA does not mean that Danish territory or airspace has been violated. There have been no violations of Danish airspace in 2024, and none have occurred since 2022.

A significant portion of this year’s activations was due to Russian military aircraft operating in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, heading toward Danish airspace.

“The situation in the Baltic region remains tense due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, and the vast majority of QRA activations have been in response to Russian aircraft. Together with our Nordic allies, as well as Poland and Germany, we have a special responsibility for security in the region, and it is crucial that Danish fighter jets assert Danish sovereignty when Russian military aircraft threaten our airspace,” says Minister of Defence Troels Lund Poulsen.

“It is mostly Russian surveillance aircraft we encounter up there in the air over the Baltic Sea,” says Colonel Søren W. Andersen, head of the Royal Danish Air Force's Operations Center. “Our task is to secure and enforce our own airspace while also demonstrating that we recognize everyone's right to fly. Our experience is that the Russians follow the same rules and generally behave properly when we encounter them in the air.”

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, airspace over the Baltic Sea has been busy. In 2022, the QRA was activated 80 times, last year the number dropped to 55, but this year it has risen to 81.

Flights over the Baltic Sea account for 96 percent of the total number of QRA missions.