Denmark is reported to have quietly prepared to blow up its own runways in Greenland – as European allies rushed troops north – amid fears that the United States might attempt to seize the Arctic territory by force in January.
According to reporting by Danish national broadcaster DR, citing multiple senior sources in Copenhagen and across Europe, Danish forces deployed to Greenland in January 2026 carried explosives intended to destroy key airstrips in Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq, in order to deny access to any incoming US military aircraft in a worst-case scenario.
The article won’t load for me, but why destroy it when you can just put large heavy things on it?
Because you can drop a few people with parachutes who can move the large heavy things? Plus it’s a lot quicker if you’re not expecting any warning.
On top of that, repairing a bunch of well made and well placed craters in a runway sufficiently for heavy transport aircraft to use it again, tends to be a bit difficult, especially if all the heavy construction machinery you can steal nearby happens to be broken, and perhaps something stupid has happened to all locally available (imported) ready to use construction material for some reason, too. (Imagine someone dumping all the gravel into the sea, pissing on the cement, and lighting the asphalt on fire)
Preparing to destroy installations and resources an enemy can use in case of an invasion is a very old and very useful tactic. The impact of this is especially high with logistical installations in places where there are few locally available resources, so everything has to be brought in by the enemy. Logistics do win wars. Lack thereof does the opposite.
Since Europe was assumed to be the front line of WW3 during the entire Cold War, pretty much all European countries have quite some experience with preparing infrastructure useful to the enemy for demolition. Many bridges and other important parts of transportation infrastructure constructed during that era have been built with prepared shafts for planting explosives for that very reason. How to blow up road- and runways to cause maximum disruption is very well researched. There even is specialised equipment for drilling demolition shafts into existing roadways.
It is very telling that the Wikipedia article on prepared obstacles in that context only exists in German and Dutch.