PARIS — Denmark will receive the French-Italian SAMP/T NG air-defense system starting in 2028 after orders were signed in the first quarter of this year, according to French defense firm Thales, which will supply the radar for the Danish system.
The Danish version of the system will be equipped with the Thales Ground Fire 300 radar, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The purchase officially makes Denmark the third country to join the club of SAMP/T NG clients, alongside France and Italy, Thales said.
Denmark in September picked the SAMP/T system over the American-made Patriot. That decision looks increasingly fortuitous after the United States government flagged possible delays linked to the Iran war in deliveries of weapons and ammunition to the Baltic countries, and after Switzerland said in March it faces delays in Patriot deliveries of four to five years.
“Denmark will benefit from the increased production capacity for the SAMP/T NG system and the production of Aster missiles, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2028,” Thales said.
Missile maker MBDA plans to double production of the Aster family of air-defense missiles in 2026 in response to surging demand. In addition to arming the ground-based SAMP/T system, the missiles are used for high-end air defense by the French, Italian and British navies. MBDA declined to comment on the timing of delivering Aster missiles to Denmark.
Thales recorded the Danish SAMP/T contract as one of its “large orders” with a value of more than €100 million (US$118 million) in the first quarter, with the French company supplying the radar and command-and-control system as well as the seeker for the Aster missile.
The SAMP/T system is made by Eurosam, a joint venture between Thales and MBDA’s French and Italian branches. The upgraded system will work with MBDA’s Aster 30 Block 1 New Technology interceptor, with a range of 150 kilometers, a new Ka-band seeker and designed to intercept medium-range ballistic missiles as well as hypersonic missiles.
The first test firing of the updated Aster missile was conducted in October 2024 in a “complex scenario” with several targets, with a second qualification firing in July 2025 to validate the interceptor’s long-range capability. The fire-control unit of the SAMP/T NG received new software to work with the Aster 30 B1NT missile.
The Thales Ground Fire radar family has a claimed range of up to 400 kilometers with 360° coverage, using a rotating S-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) antenna. The company says the radar and its associated power generator are standard-container sized and can be set up in less than 15 minutes.
After Italy and France ordered ten and eight of the next-generation systems in September 2024, respectively, the Italian Army took delivery of its first SAMP/T NG in January. The Italian version comes equipped with Leonardo’s Kronos Grand Mobile HP radar, with an air-surveillance instrument range of at least 300 kilometers.
France’s Air Warfare Center received its first system in February, kicking off a period of operational testing, to be “quickly followed” by gradual integration of SAMP/T NG into the French armed forces. The center, known by its French acronym CEAM, will test aspects including mobility, energy autonomy and integration of the new system into an air-defense chain.
Ukraine expects to receive a SAMP/T NG system this year and will start testing it against ballistic missiles, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in March.
Switzerland said in March it would acquire a second model of long-range air-defense system, preferably produced in Europe, in the face of delayed delivery of its previously ordered Patriot systems. SAMP/T is the only European alternative to Patriot.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands rushed through a Patriot order in March to avoid losing its production spot, which the country said could push delivery back to 2033.
Turkey will resume talks with Italy about buying the SAMP/T system, including technology transfer and joint production, Turkish pro-government newspaper Yeni Şafak reported earlier this month, without saying where it got the information. That’s after NATO air defenses in March intercepted at least four ballistic missiles from Iran that entered Turkish airspace.
After Turkey signed a declaration of intent with Italy and France in 2017 to strengthen cooperation in jointly producing air-defense systems, France stalled progress in response to Turkish operations in Syria in 2019. Buying the SAMP/T system would give Turkey a NATO-compatible ballistic-missile defense capability.
Thales reported seven large orders with a unit value of more than €100 million in the first quarter, including the Danish SAMP/T order, for a total amount of €1.62 billion. The company’s overall first-quarter order intake rose 23% to €4.65 billion, while sales climbed 7.2% to €5.32 billion, Thales reported on Tuesday.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
