The Royal Danish Naval Academy ( or more commonly, Søofficerskolen) educates and commissions all officers for the Royal Danish Navy. Having existed for more than 300 years, it is the oldest still-existing officers' academy in the world.

The education

All aspirants (unlike many navies all candidates begin their time as aspirants and then become cadets) begin their education with 6 months of basic military training and general seamanship. Parts of this at the Naval NCO and Basic Training School (Danish: Søværnets Sergent- og Grundskole) near Frederikshavn and other parts on the training vessel Georg Stage. This goes to both aspirants that begin their education without prior military service and those who are recruited among enlisted and petty officers. Then follows an intensified NCO-training for another 6 months. If these periods are completed and passed, then the aspirant will move onto the Naval Academy. Here follows the education for the two functional lines (either the master-line for 4 years or engineering-line for 4½ years). Included in these periods, where the aspirants of each line, is separated, is also an 11 months leadership training period, where both lines are educated together in courses like leadership, naval warfare, naval history, teaching, psychology, administration, social sciences and economics. At this time, the aspirant becomes a cadet. After 5–5½ years of training and education from the very start the aspirant is commissioned as an officer. Besides career-officers, the naval academy also trains civilian licensed marine engineers and first officers, towards naval commissioning. This training period is 11 months for first officers, and 14 months for engineers. The naval academy also runs the junior staff officers course. This course runs for 11 months, and requires satisfactory service as an OF-1 (Danish premierløjtnant).

History

Royal Danish Naval Band

The Royal Danish Naval Band (Danish: Søværnets Tamburkorps), which is the sole musical ensemble in the Danish Navy, is a unit of the Royal Danish Naval Academy. In is composed of 24 musicians who play a wide range of instruments, including piccolos, althorns, and the euphonium. It has been active since 1964 and is based in Copenhagen. The band is employed during many different events, including military tattoos and baptism of ships, both of which would require the whole band to travel for days around the country and abroad.

Governors

Location

The naval academy is located on Holmen in central Copenhagen.

See alsoacademies

Literature