Thales to provide temporary radar for Faroe Islands amid regional upgrades

The site with radome for the Faroe Islands' existing Thales RSM 970 radar, at 750 m above sea level, at Sornfelli on the island of Streymoy. (Naviair)

Thales has been chosen by the Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO) to provide an RSM NG secondary surveillance radar for the Sornfelli site on the Faroe Islands, a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, DALO and Thales said in 7 October 2026 press releases.

Although procured by a military authority, the radar will also support civil air traffic operations. Denmark's state-owned air navigation service provider Naviair and Iceland's Avians, a subsidiary of Isavia, are supporting its integration into their air traffic management systems and its operation, helping maintain uninterrupted surveillance while the existing radar is replaced.

An existing Thales RSM 970 civilian radar at Sornfelli in the Faroe Islands will be replaced temporarily with an RSM NG, according to DALO's 7 October 2026 release. The existing civilian radar will be dismantled to prepare the site for a permanent Lockheed Martin TPY-4 military air-surveillance radar, one of three whose procurement DALO announced on 16 December 2025. The other two will be installed on new towers, with protective radomes, on the Baltic island of Bornholm and at Skagen, at the northern tip of mainland Denmark.