On the outskirts of Aalborg in northern Denmark, workers are flying small FPV drones and detecting them using radio frequency technology.

Founded in 2013, counter-drone firm MyDefense builds handheld, wearable radio frequency devices that sever the connection between a drone and its pilot to neutralize the threat.

“When it enters the alarm zone, the alarm will go off. And then we see the jamming,” explained MyDefense CEO Dan Hermansen, pointing to a demonstration of the tech on a computer screen.

MyDefense devices can be used to protect airports, government buildings and other critical infrastructure.

Hermansen said the Russia-Ukraine war was a “turning point.”

MyDefense last year doubled its earnings to roughly $18.7 million compared to 2023.

In the company’s headquarters, workers sit at benches, carefully piecing together the black box devices for export.

Some of the devices will be exported to Kyiv in the hopes of jamming Russian technology on the battlefield, while others will be shipped across Europe in efforts to combat mysterious drone intrusions into NATO's airspace that have the entire continent on edge.

Hermansen said over 2,000 units of its wearable “Wingman” detector have been delivered to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

So-called “jamming” is restricted and heavily regulated in the European Union, but widespread on the battlefields of Ukraine and has become so extensive there that both Russia and Ukraine have started deploying drones tethered by thin fiber-optic cables that don’t rely on radio frequency signals.

Europe as a whole is now on high alert after the drone flyovers into NATO’s airspace reached an unprecedented scale in September, prompting European leaders to agree to develop a “drone wall” along their borders to better detect, track and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace.

In November, NATO military officials said a new American anti-drone system was deployed to the alliance’s eastern flank.

Some European officials described the incidents as Moscow testing NATO’s response, which raised questions about how prepared the alliance is against Russia.

Key challenges include the ability to detect drones — sometimes mistaken for a bird or plane on radar systems — and take them down cheaply.

The Kremlin has brushed off allegations that Russia is behind some of the unidentified drone flights in Europe.

Hermansen says such incidents were an “eye-opener” for many European countries, prompting a “surge” in interest in their technology.

“Seeing suddenly that drone warfare is not just something that happens in Ukraine or on the eastern flank, but basically is something that we need to take care of in a hybrid warfare threat scenario,” he says.

“That has significantly changed the way European countries are looking at the threat."