A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned.
Different types of academy exist: for example, pre-collegiate-level institutions awarding academic qualifications, university-level institutions awarding bachelor's-degree-level qualifications, and those preparing officer cadets for commissioning into the armed services of the state.
History The first military academies were established in the 17th and 18th centuries to provide future officers for technically specialized corps, such as military engineers and artillery, with scientific training.
The Italian Military Academy was inaugurated in Turin on January 1, 1678, as the Savoy Royal Academy, making it the oldest military academy in existence. The Royal Danish Naval Academy was set up in 1701. The Royal Military Academy, Woolwich was set up in 1741, after a false start in 1720 because of a lack of funds, as the earliest military academy in Britain. Its original purpose was to train cadets entering the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. In France, the École Royale du Génie at Mézières was founded in 1748, followed by a non-technical academy in 1751, the École Royale Militaire offering a general military education to the nobility. French military academies were widely copied in Prussia, Austria, Russia. The Norwegian Military Academy in Oslo, educates officers of the Norwegian Army. The academy was established in 1750, and is the oldest institution for higher education in Norway.
By the turn of the century, under the impetus of the Napoleonic Wars and the strain that the armies of Europe subsequently came under, military academies for the training of commissioned officers of the army were set up in most of the combatant nations. These military schools had two functions: to provide instruction for serving officers in the functions of the efficient staff-officer, and to school youngsters before they gained an officer's commission. The Kriegsakademie in Prussia was founded in 1801 and the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr was created by order of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 as a replacement for the École Royale Militaire of the Ancien Régime (the institution that Napoleon himself had graduated from).
The Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in England was the brainchild of John Le Marchant in 1801,Major-General John Gaspard Le Marchant (1766–1812) Defence Academy who established schools for the military instruction of officers at High Wycombe and Great Marlow, with a grant of £30,000 from Parliament. The two original departments were later combined and moved to Sandhurst.
In the United States, the United States Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, New York was founded on March 16, 1802, and is one of five service academies in the nation.
Types Pre-collegiate institutions
A military school teaches children of various ages (elementary school, middle school or high school) in a military environment which includes training in military aspects, such as drill. Many military schools are also boarding schools, and others are simply magnet schools in a larger school system. Many are privately run institutions, though some are public and are run either by a public school system (such as the Chicago Public Schools) or by a state.
Adult institutions A college-level military academy is an institute of higher learning of things military. It is part of a larger system of military education and training institutions. The primary educational goal at military academies is to provide a high quality education that includes significant coursework and training in the fields of military tactics and military strategy. The amount of non-military coursework varies by both the institution and the country, and the amount of practical military experience gained varies as well.
Military academies may or may not grant university degrees. In the US, graduates have a major field of study, earning a Bachelor's degree in that subject just as at other universities. However, in British academies, the graduate does not achieve a university degree, since the whole of the one-year course (undertaken mainly but not exclusively by university graduates) is dedicated to military training.
Graduates from national academies are typically commissioned as officers in the country's military. The new officers usually have an obligation to serve for a certain number of years. In some countries (e.g. Britain) all military officers train at the appropriate academy, whereas in others (e.g. the United States) only a percentage do and the service academies are seen as institutions which supply service-specific officers within the forces (about 15 percent of US military officers).
State or private-run academy graduates have no requirement to join the military after graduation, although some schools have a high rate of graduate military service. Today, most of these schools have ventured away from their military roots and now enroll both military and civilian students. The only exception in the United States is the Virginia Military Institute which remains all-military.
Albania Armed Forces Academy
Angola Army Military Academy National Air Force Academy Naval Academy
Argentina
Argentine Army: Colegio Militar de la Nación (National Military College), in El Palomar, Buenos Aires (northwestern outskirts of Buenos Aires)
Argentine Navy: Escuela Naval Militar (Naval Military School), in Río Santiago, Buenos Aires (in Ensenada, near La Plata)
Argentine Air Force: Escuela de Aviación Militar (Military Aviation School), in the city of Córdoba
Armenia National Defense Research University Vazgen Sargsyan Military Academy Armenak Khanperyants Military Aviation University
Australia
Australian Defence Force Academy Royal Australian Naval College Royal Military College, Duntroon Officers' Training School RAAF
Austria Theresian Military Academy Landesverteidigungsakademie
Azerbaijan War College of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces Azerbaijan Higher Military Academy
Bangladesh
Bangladesh Military Academy Bangladesh Naval Academy Bangladesh Air Force Academy National Defence College
Belarus Military Academy of Belarus Border Guard Service Institute of Belarus Ministry of the Interior Academy of the Republic of Belarus
Belgium Royal Military Academy (Belgium)
Bolivia Military College of Bolivia (Colegio Militar del Ejército de Bolivia) Bolivian Military Naval Academy Bolivian Air Force Academy
Brazil
Basic Education (offers an education with military values for civilians students of primary and secondary school)Brazilian Army: (SCMB) (Military High School of Brazil System) (CMBel) (Military High School of Belém) (CMBH) (Military High School of Belo Horizonte) Colégio Militar de Brasília (CMB) (Military High School of Brasília) (CMCG) (Military High School of Campo Grande) (CMC) (Military High School of Curitiba) (CMF) (Military High School of Fortaleza) (CMJF) (Military High School of Juiz de Fora) (CMM) (Military High School of Manaus) (CMPA) (Military High School of Porto Alegre) (CMR) (Military High School of Recife) (CMRJ) (Military High School of Rio de Janeiro) (CMS) (Military High School of Salvador) (CMSM) (Military High School of Santa Maria) Colégio Militar de São Paulo (CMSP) (Military High School of São Paulo)
Preparatory Schools (prepares students for admission to one of the official training academies)Brazilian Army: Escola Preparatória de Cadetes do Exército (EsPCEx) (Army Cadets Preparatory School)
Brazil's Navy:
(CN) (Naval High School)
Brazilian Air Force:
(EPCAR) (Air Cadets Preparatory School)
Sailor and Marine Soldier Training Brazil's Navy:
Centro de Instrução Almirante Milcíades Portela Alves (CIAMPA) (Admiral Milcíades Portela Alves Instruction Center) Centro de Instrução e Adestramento de Brasília (CIAB) (Brasília Instruction and Training Center) (EAM) (Apprentices-Sailors School) (EAMCE) (Ceará Apprentices-Sailors School) (EAMES) (Espirito Santo Apprentices-Sailors School) (EAMPE) (Pernambuco Apprentices-Sailors School) (EAMSC) (Santa Catarina Apprentices-Sailors School)
Sergeants Training
Brazilian Army: (ESA) (Sergeant Weapons School) (EsSLog) (Sergeant of Logistics School) (CiAvEx) (Army Aviation Instruction Center)
Brazil's Navy:
Centro de Instrução Almirante Alexandrino (CIAA) (Admiral Alexandrino Instruction Center) Centro de Instrução Almirante Sylvio de Camargo (CIASC) (Admiral Sylvio de Camargo Instruction Center)
Brazilian Air Force: (EEAR) (Air Force Specialists School)
Officers Training
Brazilian Army: Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras (AMAN) (Agulhas Negras Military Academy) (EsFCEx) (Army Complementary Training School) (EsSEx) (Army Health School) Instituto Militar de Engenharia (IME) (Military Institute of Engineering) Brazil's navy:
Centro de Instrução Almirante Wandenkolk (CIAW) (Admiral Wandekolk Instruction Center) Escola de Formação de Oficiais da Marinha Mercante (EFOMM) (Merchant Navy Officers Training School) (EN) (Naval School)
Brazilian Air Force:
(AFA) (Air Force Academy) Centro de Instrução e Adaptação da Aeronáutica (CIAAR) (Air Force Instruction and Adaptation Center) Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) (Aeronautics Institute of Technology)
Bulgaria Vasil Levski National Military University founded in 1878 as a military school in Plovdiv Air Force Faculty in Dolna Mitropoliya Artillery, Air Defence and CIS Faculty in Shumen All-Force Faculty faculty in Veliko Tarnovo Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna and founded in 1881 as Naval Machinery School in Rousse Rakovski Defence and Staff College in Sofia, founded with an Act of the 15th National Assembly of March 1, 1912, in Sofia
Canada
Two post-secondary military academies are operated under the Canadian Military Colleges system, the Royal Military College of Canada (RMCC) in Kingston, Ontario; and Royal Military College Saint-Jean (RMC Saint-Jean) in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. RMCC was established in 1876, while RMC Saint-Jean was established in 1954.H16511 Richard Arthur Preston "To Serve Canada: A History of the Royal Military College of Canada" 1997 Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1969. The two institutions provided military education to officer cadets of all three elements in the Canadian Forces; the navy, army and air force; with RMC granted the authority to confer academic degrees in arts, science and engineering by the 1960s.4237 Adrian Preston & Peter Dennis (Edited) "Swords and Covenants" Rowman And Littlefield, London. Croom Helm. 1976. From 1940 to 1995, the Department of National Defence operated a third military college in Victoria, British Columbia, known as Royal Roads Military College (RRMC).