Danish Defence Minister Jacob Ellemann-Jensen has fired his ministry’s Permanent Secretary of State following criticism over the handling of an artillery weaponry acquisition from Israel.
After donating several of its own weapon systems to Ukraine, Denmark decided in January to purchase artillery weapons from Israel’s Elbit Systems for 1.74 billion Danish crowns ($256 million).
The Ministry hastened Parliament’s finance committee to approve the purchase before the company’s offer expired at the end of the month. However, the Ministry revealed earlier this week that Elbit’s offer was only valid until the end of June.
Earlier this week, Ellemann-Jensen apologized for his handling of the issue and stated that he did not intentionally send inaccurate material to Parliament.
However, he called a meeting with members of parliament and told them he had learned that information he had communicated to parliament earlier in the week was missing important details.
NATO-member Denmark has pledged to increase defence spending to 2% of GDP and said it will spend 143 billion crowns on Defence over the next 10 years.
Other weapons manufacturers, notably France’s Nexter Systems and South Korea’s Hanwha Systems, were notified in January that their delivery timeframes would be greater than Elbit Systems’ one year.
Nexter Systems, on the other hand, stated in late January that it could supply new weaponry to Denmark by the end of 2023, and has disputed telling the Danish Defense Ministry that the company could only deliver after two years.
