The Chief of Defence of Denmark (), acting under the statutory responsibility of the Minister of Defence, is the chief of defence and commander of the Royal Danish Army, the Royal Danish Navy and the Royal Danish Air Force. The Chief of Defence is the principal military adviser to the Minister of Defence and the head of the Defence Command.
The Chief of Defence is the highest-ranking military officer on active duty in the Danish Armed Forces and has the rank of four-star General (or Admiral if from the Navy) (OF-9), 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 was traditionally rotated evenly between the army, navy and air force. This tradition was abandoned in 2012. There is no fixed length of time associated with the position, the contract however currently has to be renewed every 5 years.
Rank flags Rank Flag
List of officeholders {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! rowspan=2| ! rowspan=2| Portrait ! rowspan=2| Name ! colspan=3| Term of office ! rowspan=2| Defence branch ! rowspan=2| |- ! Took office ! Left office ! Time in office |- | 1 | | AdmiralErhard J.C. Qvistgaard | 1 October 1950 | 30 September 1962 | | Navy
| 2 | | General | 1 October 1962 | 30 November 1972 | | Air force
| 3 | | General | 1 December 1972 | 30 April 1977 | | Army
| 4 | | General | 1 May 1977 | 30 September 1984 | | Air force
| 5 | | GeneralOtto K. Lind | 1 October 1984 | 30 November 1985 | | Army
| 6 | | Admiral | 1 December 1985 | 31 October 1989 | | Navy
| 7 | | GeneralJørgen Lyng | 1 November 1989 | 31 March 1996 | | Army
| 8 | | AdmiralHans Jørgen Garde | 1 April 1996 | 3 August 1996 | | Navy
| style="background:#e6e6aa;"| – | rowspan=2| | rowspan=2| General | style="background:#e6e6aa;"| 3 August 1996 | style="background:#e6e6aa;"| 20 August 1996 | style="background:#e6e6aa;"| | rowspan=2| Air force | style="background:#e6e6aa;"| |- | 9 | 20 August 1996 | 30 September 2002
| 10 | | GeneralHans Jesper Helsø | 1 October 2002 | 31 July 2008 | | Army
| 11 | | AdmiralTim Sloth Jørgensen | 1 August 2008 | 4 October 2009 | | Navy | |-style="background:#e6e6aa;" | – | | Lieutenant generalBjørn Bisserup | 5 October 2009 | 15 November 2009 | | Army
| 12 | | GeneralKnud Bartels | 16 November 2009 | 2 January 2012 | | Army | |-style="background:#e6e6aa;" | – | | Lieutenant generalBjørn Bisserup | 2 January 2012 | 20 March 2012 | | Army
| 13 | | GeneralPeter Bartram | 20 March 2012 | 10 January 2017 | | Army
| 14 | | GeneralBjørn Bisserup | 10 January 2017 | 1 December 2020 | | Army
| 15 | | GeneralFlemming Lentfer | 1 December 2020 | 3 April 2024 | | Air force
| style="background:#e6e6aa;"| – | rowspan=2| | rowspan=2| GeneralMichael Hyldgaard | style="background:#e6e6aa;"| 3 April 2024 | style="background:#e6e6aa;"| 1 June 2025 | style="background:#e6e6aa;"| | rowspan=2| Army | style="background:#e6e6aa;"| |- | 16 | 1 June 2025 | Incumbent
Timeline
Notes
References
Bibliography