Chief of Defence (Denmark)

The Chief of Defence of Denmark (Danish: Forsvarschefen), under responsibility of the Defence minister, is the Chief of Defence and commander1 of the Royal Danish Army, the Royal Danish Navy and the Royal Danish Air Force. The Chief of Defence is the military adviser to the Defence minister and head of the Defence Command.

The Chief of Defence is the highest-ranking military officer in Denmark and has the rank of four-star General (or Admiral if from the Navy) (OF-9)2, and supervises roughly 93% of all military spending in Denmark.

The Danish Home Guard and Defence intelligence is directly under the Ministry of Defence, only in times of war will the Home Guard Command be transferred to the Defence Command, and thus come under the authority of the Chief of Defence.

The job traditionally rotated evenly between the Army, Navy and Air Force. This tradition has been abandoned in 2009. There is no fixed length of time associated with the position.

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