Denmark Expands Its Armored Forces With Procurement of 44 CV90 Infantry Fighting Vehicles.

Denmark has ordered 44 additional CV90 MkIIIC infantry fighting vehicles in a 450 million dollar package that expands its future fleet to 159 tracked IFVs. The move accelerates Copenhagen’s plan to field a fully deployable heavy brigade for NATO by the end of the decade.

BAE Systems announced on 21 November 2025 that the Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO) has ordered 44 additional CV90 MkIIIC infantry fighting vehicles under a contract worth about 450 million dollars, including spares, training, logistics, and support. The new order builds on a 2024 framework for 115 CV90s and brings the future Royal Danish Army fleet to 159 vehicles, replacing a planned mid-life upgrade for the existing CV9035DK fleet.
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Denmark's new CV90 MkIIIC infantry fighting vehicle combines a 35 mm Bushmaster III cannon with advanced thermal sights, digital battle management, strengthened mine and blast protection, and high-mobility Nordic-optimized tracks (Picture source: Danish Armed Forces).

This contract is a direct product of Denmark’s long-term Defence Agreement for 2024–2033, which allocates major new funding to rebuild the armed forces and lift defence spending to at least 2% of GDP, with a specific focus on delivering a deployable heavy brigade for NATO. That brigade will be formed by restructuring the 1st Brigade in Holstebro between 2025 and 2033 and is expected to reach full operational capability around the end of the decade, providing NATO with a fully armored Danish formation built around Leopard 2A7DK tanks and tracked IFVs rather than wheeled platforms.

Technically, the CV90 MkIIIC places Denmark at the high end of the 20–38-ton tracked IFV class. The platform retains the proven CV90 hull architecture with a three-person crew and space for seven to eight dismounts, powered by a Scania diesel delivering roughly 800 horsepower, giving road speeds around 70 km/h and long-range endurance for dispersed operations. Designed from the outset for Nordic conditions, the chassis combines high ground clearance, advanced suspension, and optional rubber track technology to reduce vibration and noise, improve mobility in snow and wetlands, and cut the acoustic and infrared signatures that increasingly matter on drone-saturated battlefields.

The MkIIIC’s combat punch is centred on the 35 mm Bushmaster III chain gun, able to fire programmable airburst ammunition against dug-in infantry, low-flying drones, and light armor, backed by a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun and banks of smoke launchers. The new D-series turret integrates this weapon with a modern sight and fire-control system offering stabilized day and thermal channels, automatic lead and elevation calculation, and the ability to engage both ground and aerial targets. Building on the Dutch CV9035NL mid-life upgrade, the turret architecture is designed to host a mast-mounted electro-optical sensor head, Iron Fist active protection, an external machine gun pod, and twin Spike- or Akeron-family anti-tank missiles, giving Danish crews true hunter-killer and long-range anti-armor capabilities with 360-degree situational awareness.

Under the Army’s emerging heavy brigade concept, these CV90s will equip mechanized infantry battalions that manoeuvre alongside Leopard 2A7DKs, providing protected mobility for dismounts in high-threat environments and direct fire support in the close fight. Danish commanders are expected to use the CV90’s digital architecture, battle management systems, and sensor fusion to conduct dispersed, networked operations, concentrating effects rather than vehicles, and exploiting the vehicle’s mobility to reposition rapidly under threat of loitering munitions and massed artillery. The brigade is earmarked for NATO’s New Force Model pool, meaning Danish CV90 units will likely appear regularly in Baltic and Arctic exercises and, if required, in forward defence along NATO’s north-eastern flank.

The Danish Army already has hard combat experience with earlier CV9035DKs in Afghanistan, where the vehicle’s mine and IED protection proved life-saving before a catastrophic IED strike in 2010 highlighted the limits of any single protection philosophy. Beyond Denmark, the CV90 family has been used heavily by Norway in Afghanistan and by Ukraine in the current war, where the combination of survivability and firepower has been widely described as a force multiplier for mechanized units. CV90s are in service with Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Estonia, and Ukraine, with Czechia and Slovakia procuring Mk IV variants, creating a dense “CV90 club” inside NATO and among close partners.

For Copenhagen, the decision to buy 44 more CV90 MkIIICs instead of refurbishing older CV9035DK hulls is a strategic bet on standardisation and speed. Major General Peter Boysen captured the logic bluntly, calling the infantry fighting vehicle “an essential part of the combat power in the heavy brigade” and stressing the need for a consolidated fleet as soon as possible. With Sweden fielding the same MkIIIC configuration and the Netherlands supplying the turret and APS expertise underpinning the design, Denmark is anchoring itself inside a Northern European tracked-armor ecosystem that will shape NATO’s land posture for the next two decades.