Denmark’s choice sends a loud signal of change in European defence procurement and strikes at the American monopoly. On April 21, 2026, Copenhagen officially signed a contract for the European SAMP/T NG air and missile defence system, definitively rejecting the American Patriot. For decades, European NATO members bought American air defence systems as a matter of course. Patriot was the gold standard, deployed from Germany to Poland, from the Netherlands to Romania. Denmark itself had been a