By Mogens Rysholt Poulsen, Dean, Aalborg University; Rasmus Larsen, Pro-rector, Technical University of Denmark; and Niels Husted Kjær, CEO, Alexandra Institute A/S, on behalf of the National Defence Technology Centre. Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication 

What does war look like in 2023? Soldiers in trenches and missile attacks may come to mind. As Russia's invasion of Ukraine shows, this is still part of reality. But disinformation campaigns, sabotage of energy and transport hubs, the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence and cyberattacks play increasingly important roles.

This applies not only to Russia's warfare in Ukraine. It is well known, for example, that China is also investing heavily in new technologies with military applications.  

None of this is new to the Danish Armed Forces, NATO or Danish politicians. They have become accustomed to talking about hybrid conflicts that span many domains. But new or not – the expansion over an increasing number of domains implies a constant demand for development and adaptation of Danish Armed Forces technologies, competencies and other resources.

Challenged by cyberattacks and sabotage

The cyber area is one example. This is an area where we have already prioritised strong positioning in Denmark. One national strategy has replaced the other. This is due diligence, as waves of cyberattacks wash over Denmark. Most recently, several Danish banks and authorities were victims of such attacks in January.

The latest national strategy for cyber and information security anticipates frequent attacks and calls for strengthened efforts to keep up with the increasing threat. This is also confirmed by the Centre for Cyber Security, Danish Defence Intelligence Service, which warns of cyber espionage from Russia and China.

The point is that even though the Danish Armed Forces and other Danish authorities give high priority to the cyber area, there will be a need for constant development and collaboration across many knowledge domains, because the threats are constantly evolving. Efforts in the cyber area thus continuously require major resources – in terms of both money and technologies, as well as sufficiently specialised labour. 

Another example: The sabotage of the Nordstream gas pipelines in the autumn was discovered after the fact because an extensive expansion of our preventive monitoring is needed of our underwater pipes and cables, which not only supply gas, but also electricity, internet, oil, etc.

The deficient monitoring entails several risks, the most serious of which concerns the electricity grid: The electricity grid is largely fed via underwater cables from our neighbouring countries and offshore wind turbines, and this piece of critical infrastructure could be paralysed for weeks with a targeted sabotage operation. We would probably not see it coming, because no monitoring technology would alert us, and underwater robots only stop by for routine servicing.

When it comes to both the cyber area and the underwater pipes and cables, our research and development environments have many of the solutions needed to increase security. This is knowledge we have from partnering with companies that produce technologies used elsewhere today. Of course, we also need continuous optimisation and development of these solutions, but this is also exactly what is going on in the research and development environments at the Danish universities and the government approved research and development organisations.

The Danish research and development sector is also at the forefront internationally in many other respects, including advanced drone technology, green fuels, electronic systems, quantum, space and information technology, and the development of digital systems.

The Danish Armed Forces must continuously adapt to new threats in some or all of these areas. This is a substantial task, and the scale and complexity can make it difficult to keep up.

The research and development sector is ready for cooperation

The need to adapt the Danish Armed Forces from deployment out in the world to defence of our own territory in collaboration with our partners calls for expert knowledge based on the highest level of research. This is especially necessary now that we are looking at a historically long defence agreement of perhaps 10 years. The world is likely to change a lot in that time, and it is vitally important that the Danish Armed Forces ally themselves with partners who can contribute to the right development throughout the period.

In this situation, the Danish universities as a group have established the NFC – National Defence Technology Centre in partnership with the five government approved research and development organisations (GTS institutes) the Danish Technological Institute, the Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology, FORCE Technology, the Danish National Metrology Institute and the Alexandra Institute.

This is the first time the Danish research and development sector has entered into collaboration with such a clear organisation and distribution of roles. The partnership is intended to systematise our research strengths and offer a clear entry point for the Danish Armed Forces and industry to specifically collaborate on defence technology development that corresponds to the geopolitical reality.

With the Danish research and development sector as the engine of development comes a guarantee that knowledge from defence industry research and development will benefit society more widely. In part because of the strong connection between research and education with a focus on the interdisciplinary synergies the universities are known for. A connection that means that expert knowledge from defence industry research and development where we are involved will also flow to our degree programmes and thus the large and small, public and private companies that hire our graduates, for example as cybersecurity experts or drone engineers.

Furthermore, a characteristic of our approach to research is that we realise any potential for civil applications. This applies, for example, to defence industry research on exoskeletons, i.e. robotics that can be applied to the body, enhancing the body's functions. Or research on satellite-based systems that can be used to both monitor the movement of army units and search for ships in distress.