Danish Defence

Danish Defence
Forsvaret
Motto Fordi noget er værd at kæmpe for! (Because some things are worth fighting for!)
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
Official Picture Database
Leadership
Monarch Margrethe II
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen
Minister of Defence Claus Hjort Frederiksen
Chief of Defence General Bjørn Bisserup
Manpower
Military age 18
Conscription Yes, for males
Available for
military service		 1,276,087 (2004 est.), age 18-60
Fit for
military service		 1,088,751 (2004 est.), age 18-60
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, Faroese: Danska verjan) is the unified armed forces of the Kingdom of Denmark, charged with the defence of Denmark and its constituent, self-governing nations Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

The Queen is the Commander-in-chief in accordance with the Danish constitution, and under 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]

History

After World War II, the different branches were reorganized, and collected under Danish Defence. This was to ensure a unified command when conducting joint operations, as learned from the war.[7]

Cold War

Total defence

Total Defence (Danish: Totalforsvaret), is a collection of the military, Home Guard, Danish Emergency Management Agency and elements of the police to ensure effective and coordinated efforts, in cases of crises, disasters or major incidents.[8]

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 (1949–1989)[9][10]

1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
Total Budget (Billions) Kr. 0.36 0.36 0.48 0.68 0.89 0.89 0.92 0.94 1.01 0.99 0.99 1.11 1.18 1.55 1.65 1.76 1.97 2.08 2.25 2.60 2.64 2.97 3.20 3.39 3.52 4.46 5.36 5.71 6.38 7.29 8.05 9.12 10.30 11.67 12.57 13.05 13.34 13.33 14.65 15.62 15.96
Percentage of GNP 2.0 1.7 2.1 2.7 3.4 3.2 3.2 3.0 3.1 2.9 2.6 2.7 1.6 3.0 3.0 2.8 2.8 2.6 2.6 2.7 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.2 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.2 2.2 2.3 2.3 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.2 2.1 1.9 2.0 2.1 2.0
Defense Spending % Change -0.3 +0.4 +0.6 +0.7 -0.2 0.0 -0.2 +0.1 -0.2 -0.3 +0.1 -0.9 +1.4 0.0 -0.2 0.0 -0.2 0.0 +0.1 -0.3 0.0 0.0 -0.2 -0.2 +0.2 +0.2 -0.2 0.0 +0.1 0.0 +0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0-0.2 -0.1 -0.2 +0.1 +0.1 -0.1

Danish Defence expenditures (1990–)[9][10]

1990s 2000s 2010s
90 91 92 9394 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Total Budget (Billions) Kr. 16.4 17.09 17.13 17.39 17.29 17.47 17.90 18.52 19.07 19.43 19.34 21.02 21.27 21.08 21.44 20.80 23.17 22.73 24.41 23.25 25.33 24.26 25.62 23.72 25.02
Percentage of GNP 2.0 2.0 1.9 1.9 1.8 1.7 1.7 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.5 1.6 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.3 1.4 1.3 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.3
Defense Spending % Change 0.0 0.0 -0.1 0.0 -0.1 -0.1 0.0 -0.1 0.0. 0.0 -0.1 +0.1 -0.1 0.0. 0.0 -0.2 +0.1 -0.1 +0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 -0.1 0.0

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.[11]

Branches

Structure

Special forces

Operations

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

Current deployment of Danish forces, since 10-03-2016:[12]

NATO

UN

National Missions

Coalitions

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).[15] Due to the large number of volunteers, 96-99% of the number required in the past three years,[16] 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.[17]

Conscripts in the Danish Defence (army, navy and air force) generally serve four months,[18][19] except:

There has been a right of conscientious objection since 1917.[22]

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. Archived from the original on 2015-11-23.
  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. Archived from the original on 2009-04-15. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  7. ↑ Danish Defence (3 February 2014). "Danish Defence's History". forsvaret.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  8. ↑ Ministry of Defence (6 April 2016). "Society's Overall Emergency (Total Defence)". fmn.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  9. 1 2 ("Økonomi-styrelsen") ( Finance law 1996 to 2006])
  10. 1 2 (1976–1989)
  11. ↑ Jens Ringsmose (November 2007). "Danmarks NATO omdømme" (PDF). cms.polsci.ku.dk. Dansk Institut for Militære Studier.
  12. ↑ "Danish Defence around the world right now". forsvaret.dk (in Danish). Forsvaret. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  13. ↑ Ussing, Jakob. "Absalon to be part of NATO fight against human trafficking". b.dk (in Danish). Berlinske. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  14. ↑ Lindhardt, Søren. "Special Forces training Nigerian special forces". forsvaret.dk (in Danish). Defence Command. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  15. ↑ Statistical information from the draft board (in Danish)
  16. ↑ Thomas Klose Jensen. "Frivillig værnepligtig: Det er min drengedrøm". DR.
  17. ↑ Ordinary conscript (in Danish)
  18. ↑ Army's basic training (in Danish)
  19. ↑ Air force's basic training (in Danish)
  20. ↑ Navy's basic training (in Danish)
  21. ↑ Conscription in the Danish Emergency Management Agency (in Danish)
  22. ↑ Alternative service law, 13 December 1917, Article 1
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