The Danish Frogman Corps is an elite special forces

Special forces

Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...

 frogman

Frogman

A frogman is someone who is trained to scuba diving or swim underwater in a military capacity which can include combat. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver or combatant diver or combat swimmer....

 corps

Corps

A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...

 in the Royal Danish Navy

Royal Danish Navy

The Royal Danish Navy is the sea-based branch of the Danish Defence force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Danish, Greenlandic and Faroese territorial waters...

.

This corps was set up on June 17, 1957 based on the model of the British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 SBS

Special Boat Service

The Special Boat Service is the special forces unit of the British Royal Navy. Together with the Special Air Service, Special Reconnaissance Regiment and the Special Forces Support Group they form the United Kingdom Special Forces and come under joint control of the same Director Special...

. Initially it was under the Danish Navy's Diving School at Flådestation Holmen (Naval Station Holmen, Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

), but in 1970 it was made an independent unit, operationally under the submarine squadron.

Today the Danish Frogman Corps is directly under the Danish Navy's Operational Command.
They are an elite team of professional divers and soldiers.

The Frogman Corps' primary duty is reconnaissance, but it is also tasked with assaulting enemy ships, sabotage of fixed installations, and combat duties.

It performs special forces type work on land also, including anti-terrorism and anti-criminal work. The Corps supports the police with clearing up criminal matters that demand highly specialised diving. Also, local authorities, etc can benefit from the frogmen's skills, for example when underwater installations must be inspected.

The Danish Frogman Corps trains at the Torpedo Station at Kongsøre and works through a long series of courses, e.g.:

• Combat swimmer course for three weeks
• Advanced scuba diving
  Scuba diving
  Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
  
   course
• Rescue swimmer course
• Survival course

The basic Frogman Course is nine months. Each year 500-600 applicants start the course and less than a dozen complete all nine months.

Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark

Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark

Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, is the heir apparent to the throne of Denmark. Frederik is the elder son of Queen Margrethe II and Henrik, the Prince Consort.-Name and christening:...

 completed his education in this corps, under the nom de guerre "Pingo

Rasmus Klump

Rasmus Klump is a comic strip series for small children created in 1951 by the Danish wife and husband team Carla and Vilhelm Hansen...

".

External links

• Official webpage (in Danish)