Danish Defence

Danish Defence
Forsvaret
Motto For Danmark (For Denmark)
Founded 1949 (1949)
Current form Defence Agreement 2013-17
Service branches Royal Danish Army
Royal Danish Navy
Royal Danish Air Force
Danish Home Guard
Headquarters Kuglegården
Website Official Website
Official Facebook
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief Queen Margrethe II
Minister of Defence Peter Christensen (Venstre)
Chief of Defence General Peter Bartram
Manpower
Military age 18–49
Conscription Yes
Available for
military service
1,276,087 (2004 est.), age 15–49
Fit for
military service
1,088,751 (2004 est.), age 15–49
Reaching military
age annually
43.073[1]
Active personnel 15.034 military and 4.877 civilian (1 January 2016)[2]
Reserve personnel 12,000 + 51,000 volunteers in the Home Guard
Deployed personnel 473 (21 January 2015)[3]
Expenditures
Budget 20.9 billion DKK (USD ~3.0 billion) (2015)[4]
Percent of GDP 1,3% (2014)
Industry
Foreign suppliers Canada
Germany
Sweden
Switzerland
United States
Related articles
History Military history of Denmark
Ranks Officer ranks
Other ranks
Danish soldier at Combined Resolve III, 2014

The Danish Defence (Danish: Forsvaret) is the unified armed forces of the Kingdom of Denmark, charged with the defence of Denmark and its overseas territories, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Queen Margrethe II is the de jure Commander-in-Chief per the Danish constitution, however according to the Danish Defence Law[5] the Minister of Defence serves as the commander of the Danish Defence (through the Chief of Defence and the Defence Command) and the Danish Home Guard (through the Home Guard Command). De facto the Danish Cabinet is the commanding authority of the Defence, though it cannot mobilize the armed forces, for purposes that are not strictly defence oriented, without the consent of parliament.

Denmark also has a concept of "total defence" (Danish: Totalforsvar).[6]

Purpose and task

The purpose and task of the armed forces of Denmark is defined in Law no. 122 of February 27, 2001 and in force since March 1, 2001. It defines three purposes and six tasks.

Its primary purpose is to prevent conflicts and war, preserve the sovereignty of Denmark, secure the continuing existence and integrity of the independent Kingdom of Denmark and further a peaceful development in the world with respect to human rights.

Its primary tasks are: NATO participation in accordance with the strategy of the alliance, detect and repel any sovereignty violation of Danish territory (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), defence cooperation with non-NATO members, especially Central and East European countries, international missions in the area of conflict prevention, crises-control, humanitarian, peacemaking, peacekeeping, participation in Total Defence in cooperation with civilian resources and finally maintenance of a sizable force to execute these tasks at all times.

Defence budget

Since 1988, Danish defence budgets and security policy have been set by multi-year agreements supported by a wide parliamentary majority including government and opposition parties. However, public opposition to increases in defence spending—during a period when economic constraints require reduced spending for social welfare—has created differences among the political parties regarding a broadly acceptable level of new defence expenditure.

The latest Defence agreement ("Defence agreement 2005–2009") was signed June 10, 2004, and calls for a significant re-construction of the entire military. From now about 60% support structure and 40% combat operational capability, it is to be 40% support structure and 60% combat operational capability, i.e. more combat soldiers and fewer "paper"-soldiers. The reaction speed is increased, with an entire brigade on standby readiness; the military retains the capability to continually deploy 2,000 soldiers in international service or 5,000 over a short time span. The standard mandatory conscription is modified. Generally this means fewer conscripts, less service time for them and only those who choose so, will continue into the reaction force system.

Expenditures

In 2006 the Danish military budget was the fifth largest single portion of the Danish Government's total budget, significantly less than that of the Ministry of Social Affairs (~110 billion DKK), Ministry of Employment (~67 billion DKK), Ministry of the Interior and Health (~66 billion DKK) and Ministry of Education (~30 billion DKK) and only slightly larger than that of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (~14 billion DKK). This list lists the complete expenditures for the Danish Ministry of Defence.

The Danish Defence Force, counting all branches and all departments, itself has an income equal to about 15% of its expenditures, depending on the year. They are not deducted in this listing.

Approximately 95% of the budget goes directly to running the Danish military including the Home guard. Depending on year, 5053% accounts for payment to personnel, roughly 1421% on acquiring new material, 28% for larger ships, building projects or infrastructure and about 2427% on other items, including purchasing of goods, renting, maintenance, services and taxes.

The remaining 5% is special expenditures to NATO, branch shared expenditures, special services and civil structures, here in including running the Danish Maritime Safety Administration, Danish national rescue preparedness and the Administration of Conscientious Objectors (Militærnægteradministrationen).

Danish Defence expenditures (1949–1980)[7][8] Danish Defence expenditures (1981–)[7][8]
Year Percentage of GNP Complete expenditures
(Ministry of Defence)
in millions of DKK
1949 2,0% 360
1950 1,7% 359
1951 2,1% 475
1952 2,7% 676
1953 3,4% 889
1954 3,2% 885
1955 3,2% 920
1956 3,0% 936
1957 3,1% 1.012
1958 2,9% 988
1959 2,6% 986
1960 2,7% 1.113
1961 1,6% 1.180
1962 3,0% 1.551
1963 3,0% 1.651
1964 2,8% 1.764
1965 2,8% 1.974
1966 2,6% 2.080
1967 2,6% 2.249
1968 2,7% 2.591
1969 2,4% 2.640
1970 2,4% 2.967
1971 2,4% 3.195
1972 2,2% 3.386
1973 2,0% 3.520
1974 2,2% 4.462
1975 2,4% 5.355
1976 2,2% 5.714
1977 2,2% 6.382
1978 2,3% 7.294
1979 2,3% 8.045
1980 2,4% 9.117
Year Percentage of GNP Complete expenditures
(Ministry of Defence)
in millions of DKK
1981 2,4% 10.301
1982 2,4% 11.669
1983 2,4% 12.574
1984 2,2% 13.045
1985 2,1% 13.344
1986 1,9% 13.333
1987 2,0% 14.647
1988 2,1% 15.620
1989 2,0% 15.963
1990 2,0% 16.399
1991 2,0% 17.091
1992 1,9% 17.129
1993 1,9% 17.390
1994 1,8% 17.293
1995 1,7% 17.468
1996 1,7% 17.896
1997 1,6% 18.521
1998 1,6% 19.071
1999 1,6% 19.428
2000 1,5% 19.339
2001 1,6% 21.017
2002 1,5% 21.269
2003 1,5% 21.075
2004 1,5% 21.441
2005 1,3% 20.800
2006 1,4% 23.173
2007 1,3% 22.731
2008 1,4% 24.410
2009 1,4% 23.252
2010 1,4% 25.328
2011 1,4% 24.259
2012 1,4% 25.617
2013 1,3% 23.724
2014 1,3% 25.022
2015 N/A 20.892 (expected)
2016 N/A 21.404 (expected)
2017 1,2% 21.187 (expected)
2018 N/A 20.603 (expected)

Because Denmark has a small and highly specialized military industry, the vast majority of the Danish Defence's equipment is imported from NATO and the Nordic countries.[9]

Branches

Structure

Special forces

Current deployments

Red: National, Light blue: UN, Dark blue: NATO, Green: Koalitions

Current deployment of Danish forces, since 10-03-2016:[10]

NATO

UN

National Missions

Koalitions

Conscription

Conscript from Royal Life Guards standing guard at Rosenborg Castle

Technically all Danish 18-year-old males are conscripts (37,897 in 2010, of whom 53% were considered suitable for duty).[13] Due to the large number of volunteers, 96-99 % of the number required in the past three years, [14] the number of men actually called up is relatively low (4200 in 2012). There were additionally 567 female volunteers in 2010, who pass training on "conscript-like" conditions.[15]

Conscripts in the Danish Defence (army, navy and air force) generally serve four months,[16][17] except:

There has been a right of conscientious objection since 1917. [20]

See also

References

  1. "Statistik - oktober 2015". Statistik - oktober 2015.
  2. "Number of employees". forpers.dk (in Danish). Danish Defence. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  3. "FN missioner med dansk deltagelse". forsvaret.dk.
  4. "Defence expenditure". Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  5. "LOV nr 122 af 27/02/2001 om forsvarets formål, opgaver og organisation m.v." (in Danish). Retrieved 2012-07-30.
  6. "The Danish Defence Agreement 2005 - 2009". Danish Defence. Defence Command Denmark. 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  7. 1 2 ("Økonomi-styrelsen") ( Finance law 1996 to 2006])
  8. 1 2 (19761989)
  9. Jens Ringsmose (November 2007). "Danmarks NATO omdømme" (PDF). cms.polsci.ku.dk. Dansk Institut for Militære Studier.
  10. "Danish Defence around the world right now". forsvaret.dk (in Danish). Forsvaret. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  11. Ussing, Jakob. "Absalon to be part of NATO fight against human trafficking". b.dk (in Danish). Berlinske. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  12. Lindhardt, Søren. "Special Forces training Nigerian special forces". forsvaret.dk (in Danish). Defence Command. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  13. Statistical information from the draft board (Danish)
  14. Thomas Klose Jensen. "Frivillig værnepligtig: Det er min drengedrøm". DR.
  15. Ordinary conscript (Danish)
  16. Army's basic training (Danish)
  17. Air force's basic training (Danish)
  18. Navy's basic training (Danish)
  19. Conscription in the Danish Emergency Management Agency (Danish)
  20. Alternative service law, 13 December 1917, Article 1

External links

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