PARIS/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -France's Thales and its partners are talking to several European and other nations about potential new SAMP/T deals after Denmark picked the Franco-Italian air defence system over the U.S. Patriot, a senior Thales executive said.
"Air defence is clearly becoming a priority across Europe, not only the eastern part," Herve Dammann, Executive Vice-President for Land and Air Systems, told reporters on Monday.
Prospects include not only countries that have publicly voiced interest,
like Greece and Belgium, but other unidentified markets, he told a briefing on Denmark's SAMP/T purchase.
Air defences are in focus after Poland shot down suspected Russian drones in its airspace with the backing of aircraft from NATO allies, the first time a member of the Western alliance is known to have fired shots during Russia's war in Ukraine.
Denmark said on Friday it would acquire air defence systems, including two SAMP/T systems, for 58 billion Danish crowns ($9.1 billion), becoming the first European buyer outside France and Italy and rejecting bids for the widely used U.S. Patriot.
The competition was seen as a test of European efforts to boost purchases of regionally produced weapons, and put ties between two NATO allies further under the spotlight following a recent spat between Copenhagen and Washington over Greenland.
Danish officials have denied any link between the country's largest ever arms purchase and recent tensions with Washington over U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign to acquire Greenland, which has been under Danish control since 1721.
"This is not a rejection of Patriot, it is a selection of what is best," Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told a news conference on Friday.
DANISH POLITICIANS BACK DECISION TO BUY IN EUROPE
Thales declined to comment on the political backdrop to the competition, saying this was a matter for the Danish government and that SAMP/T had won in part due to its 360-degree coverage.
SAMP/T was developed by Thales and forerunners to the French and Italian subsidiaries of MBDA, the world's second-largest missile maker behind RTX, which developed the Patriot system used by over half a dozen European nations.
The choice between American and European systems has become politically sensitive following a flurry of comments from Trump threatening to annex Greenland over security concerns.
While Danish officials emphasised the decision was based on technical and practical considerations, Danish politicians on left and right painted the procurement as a win for Europe.
"It pays to be a good ally ... It has been a strong political desire to buy from reliable and non-threatening partners," said conservative lawmaker Rasmus Jarlov on X.
"I will not hide the fact that I am incredibly happy that the 58 billion crowns will not go to the Israeli or U.S. arms industry, but will go to the European arms industry," said Martin Lidegaard, leader of the opposition Social Liberal party.
Denmark is also looking at medium-range defences including the Norwegian NASAMS, German IRIS-T and French VL-MICA.
In a paper on defence readiness earlier this year, the European Commission identified air and missile defences as one of seven priority areas for filling gaps in military capacity.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris and Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen. Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)
