Danish Defence

Danish Defence
Forsvaret
Service branches Royal Danish Army—Hæren (HRN)
Royal Danish Navy—Søværnet (SVN)
Royal Danish Air Force—Flyvevåbnet (FLV)
Danish Home Guard–Hjemmeværnet (HJV)
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief Queen Margrethe II
Defence Minister Nicolai Wammen (Social Democrats)
Chief of Defence General Peter Bartram[1]
Manpower
Military age 18–49
Available for
military service		 1,276,087 (2004 est.), age 15–49
Fit for
military service		 1,088,751 (2004 est.), age 15–49
Active personnel ca. 18.827 (2014)[2]
Reserve personnel 12,000 + 51,000 volunteers in the Home Guard
Deployed personnel 1,400[3]
Expenditures
Budget 22.48 billion DKK(USD ~3.7 billion) (2014)[4]
Percent of GDP 1.16% (2014)
Related articles
History Military history of Denmark
Danish Army and Navy personnel at combined/joint exercise DANEX/DRO '07

The armed forces of the Kingdom of Denmark, known as The Defence (Force) (Danish: Forsvaret) is 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 1–5% 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, 50–53% accounts for payment to personnel, roughly 14–21% on acquiring new material, 2–8% for larger ships, building projects or infrastructure and about 24–27% 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 (1970–2009)[7][8]
Year Percentage of GNP Complete expenditures
(Ministry of Defence)
in millions of DKK		 Year Percentage of GNP Complete expenditures
(Ministry of Defence)
in millions of DKK
1949 2,0% ? 1982 2.5% 11,836
1950 1,8% ? 1983 2.5% 12,783
1951 2,0% ? 1984 2.3% 13,163
1952 2,8% ? 1985 2.2% 13,355
1953 3,3% ? 1986 2.0% 13,142
1954 3,2% ? 1987 2.1% 14,443
1955 3,2% ? 1988 2.2% 15,800
1956 3,1% ? 1989 2.1% 15,767
1957 3,1% ? 1990 2,0% ?
1958 2,9% ? 1991 2,0% ?
1959 2,6% ? 1992 2,1% ?
1960 2,7% ? 1993 1,9% ?
1961 2,6% ? 1994 1,9% ?
1962 3,0% ? 1995 1,8% ?
1963 3,0% ? 1996 1.7% 17,012.6
1964 2,9% ? 1997 1.7% 17,615.1
1965 2,9% ? 1998 1.6% 18,221.4
1966 2,8% ? 1999 1.4% 17,384.9
1967 2,8% ? 2000 1.4% 17,496.5
1968 2,8% ? 2001 1.4% 18,310.4
1969 2,5% ? 2002 1.4% 18,665.9
1970 2,4% ? 2003 1.4% 18,857.9
1971 2,5% ? 2004 1.4% 19,841.3
1972 2,2% ? 2005 1.3% 19,066.8
1973 2,1% ? 2006 1.3% 21,221.9
1974 2,0% ? 2007 na 21,692.1 (expected)
1975 2,1% ? 2008 na 21,341.3 (expected)
1976 2.2% 5,910 2009 na 18.960.1 (expected)
1977 2.3% 6,390
1978 2.3% 7,082
1979 2.2% 7,525
1980 2.6% 9,545
1981 2.6% 10,612

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

Current deployment of Danish forces:

Conscription

Technically all Danish 18-year-old males are conscripts (37,897 in 2010), and 53% (2010) were considered suitable for duty.[11] There is no need for all of them so only a few of them serve (4200 in 2012). Between ninety-six and ninety-nine percent of the conscripts have been volunteers in the past three years.[12] There were additionally 567 female volunteers in 2010, who pass training on "conscript-like" conditions.[13]

Conscripts in the Danish Defence (army, navy and air force) generally serve four months,[14][15] except:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ny Forsvarschef 20-03-2012 in Danish
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Forsvarets Verdenskort
  4. ↑
  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. ↑ Danish Agency for Governmental Management ("Økonomi-styrelsen") ( Finance law 1996 to 2006])
  8. ↑ Danmarks Statistik (1976–1989)
  9. ↑ http://cms.polsci.ku.dk/pdf/dk_nato_omdoemme.pdf
  10. ↑ http://www.thelocal.dk/20141016/danish-f-16s-carry-out-first-mission-against-isis
  11. ↑ Statistical information from the draft board (Danish)
  12. ↑ http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Indland/2014/10/10/10132758.htm
  13. ↑ Ordinary conscript (Danish)
  14. ↑ Army's basic training (Danish)
  15. ↑ Air force's basic training (Danish)
  16. ↑ Navy's basic training (Danish)
  17. ↑ Conscription in the Danish Emergency Management Agency (Danish)

External links

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