The decision to fund a new cycle path leading to a Danish ammunition factory in the village of Elling has become a small but telling example of how sustainable mobility and defence rearmament now intersect in Denmark.
A majority in the Folketing has agreed to allocate 18 million Danish kroner (about €2.4 million) to improve traffic and environmental safety around the former ammunitions plant “Krudten“, which is being revived to produce shells and cartridges for the Danish Armed Forces and allied countries.
Safety upgrades around Elling’s revived ammunition plant
The new agreement sets aside funding for a separate cycle path along the local road that leads to the Krudten site in Elling, in North Jutland. Local residents had raised concerns that schoolchildren, commuters and older citizens would have to share a narrow road with the heavy lorries transporting explosives and finished ammunition to and from the factory. The compromise found in Copenhagen is to shield so‑called “soft” road users from that traffic by offering a dedicated, safer route.
According to the political parties behind the defence settlement, the money will also cover the cleanup of an old wastewater treatment facility on the factory grounds. Environmental studies in the 1990s documented contamination linked to earlier production at the site, and the area has since been classified as polluted. Before new industrial activity starts, the facility will be dismantled and the soil remediated to remove potential sources of pollution, addressing a long‑standing local concern.
Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen (Venstre) has framed the investment as a way to combine traffic safety, environmental protection and the needs of Denmark’s defence industry. Ensuring that residents do not have to cycle alongside ammunition trucks, and that historical pollution is cleaned up, is presented as part of the social licence for bringing large‑scale ammunition production back to the village.
From mothballed factory to key node in Europe’s ammunition ramp‑up
The traffic and environmental upgrades are directly tied to the decision to restart ammunition production in Elling. The Krudten site, which has produced ammunition in various forms since the late 1960s, was sold to private owners in 2008 and later mothballed. In 2023, the Danish Ministry of Defence bought back the area with the explicit aim of re‑establishing national ammunition manufacturing capacity.
In 2025, Copenhagen selected the Norwegian‑Finnish group Nammo as industrial partner for the project. Under a long‑term agreement, a new company, Nammo Denmark A/S, is due to produce 155 mm and 120 mm artillery shells, as well as 5.56 mm and 7.62 mm cartridges, all standard calibres within NATO. The investment is part of a broader defence acceleration fund worth several billion kroner, designed to rebuild ammunition stockpiles and reduce dependence on foreign suppliers.
The Elling factory is expected to become one of several Nordic hubs in Europe’s wider effort to ramp up ammunition output after Russia’s full‑scale invasion of Ukraine. For Denmark, bringing production home is described as a way to strengthen security of supply for its own armed forces while contributing to allied support for Ukraine and to NATO’s collective deterrence.
Local concerns between traffic, pollution and green mobility
At the same time, the revival of the ammunition factory has triggered a local debate in Elling and the wider Frederikshavn municipality. Residents have voiced worries about increased heavy traffic, noise and the risk of new pollution in a community that has lived next to the plant for decades. A small citizens’ group has organised to question the project and to push for closer dialogue on safety distances, emergency planning and long‑term environmental monitoring.
The new cycle path and the cleanup of the former wastewater installation are meant to respond to some of these concerns. A physically separated route for pedestrians and cyclists is expected to make it safer for children to go to school or sports activities without having to navigate around trucks carrying explosives. Removing historical contamination from the site is presented as a precondition for expanding industrial activity in line with modern environmental standards.
Still, for many locals, the symbolism of the project is hard to ignore: a brand‑new piece of green infrastructure leading directly to an ammunition factory. Elling is a small community in a country that often showcases itself internationally through images of cyclists, wind turbines and climate‑friendly cities. The idea that the same political majority now invests in a cycle path precisely because of an expanding arms industry captures a tension that goes beyond North Jutland.
Green transition and defence build‑up on the same road
Seen from Copenhagen and Brussels, the Elling decision fits into two parallel policy agendas. On one side, Denmark is strengthening its role in European defence industrial cooperation, particularly within the Nordic region, by re‑establishing domestic production of critical ammunition. On the other, it continues to promote sustainable transport and climate‑friendly infrastructure, including in rural areas.
The decision to put a cycle path and an ammunition factory on the same budget line illustrates how these agendas now coexist rather than compete. The investment is framed as an attempt to ensure that the green transition and the defence build‑up can literally share the same road, with additional safeguards for local residents and the environment.
For Denmark and for other European Union countries expanding their defence industries, Elling raises broader questions. How can governments guarantee safety, transparency and environmental protection for communities living next to new or expanded arms factories? And to what extent can investments in sustainable mobility offset the political and ethical dilemmas of relying on an ammunition industry that is being scaled up in response to ongoing wars?
Those questions will remain long after the new asphalt has been laid between Elling’s homes, fields and the gates of Krudten. The cycle path may make everyday life safer for local cyclists, but it also highlights how deeply the consequences of Europe’s security crisis now reach into the landscape of the Nordic welfare state.
