Denmark's navy was forced to shut down local airspace and a key shipping route yesterday after a missile launcher on one of its ships malfunctioned - marking the second military gaffe in a little under a month from the Nato member.

The country's National Maritime Authority had warned seafaring traffic to avoid the Great Belt strait - a heavily-used shipping lane which cuts off the Danish mainland from the island of Zealand, home to capital Copenhagen - for around six hours on Thursday afternoon.

The authority said vessels in the area - which had been hosting a naval exercise slated to end later today - would run the risk of "falling missile fragments" if they passed through.

In a statement released last night, the Danish military said: "The situation with the missile arose in connection with a mandatory test where the launcher, the booster, on one of the ship's missiles was activated and apparently could not be deactivated again."

At the time, another statement said there was a risk that the missile could fire and accidentally hit something a number of kilometres away.

The later statement continued: "During the afternoon, specialists from the Danish Defence Materiel and Procurement Agency have been working to investigate whether it was an arming of the launcher or whether it was an electronic error message.

"The specialists carried out a number of different tests, after which it was determined that the booster was not armoured and that there is no longer a risk of the missile being fired.

"In connection with the situation, an area was set up off the Korsør Naval Station where ship and air traffic was stopped.

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"Both of these measures were cancelled at approximately 8pm and traffic can now move freely again."

The missile had been launched by HDMS Niels Juel, a frigate which has formed part of Nato's standing force since last year.

The defence ministry said the missile was carrying a 150kg explosive payload, but reassured that it was not armed and would not detonate if it crashed into the sea.

The blunder comes just a few weeks after another Danish frigate - the HMDS Iver Huitfeldt - had its radar and missile systems fail while on patrol in the Red Sea as part of the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, which aims to safeguard commercial shipping in the area.

The ship's defence systems had blacked out while it was under attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on March 9, putting its 175-strong crew at risk.

It later emerged that Denmark's chief of defence, Flemming Lenfter, had failed to report on the malfunction - leading Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen to sack Lenfter.

Poulsen said: "I have not been aware of the report given by the captain... I no longer have trust in the chief of defence, Flemming Lentfer."

The blunders may dent Nato allies' confidence in the small North Sea nation, but Denmark has pledged to bump up its defence budget by 40.5 billion Danish Kroner (£4.6 billion) over the next five years to meet the bloc's 2 per cent spending goals "in a world where the international order is being challenged," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.