On 16th January 2020, President Granger of Guyana, a former Chief of Defence Staff, told a conference of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer corps, that the GDF was in a better position than it was five years earlier.
Granger pointed to the growth of the country’s militia to 1500 personnel and an increase in the number of personnel being – basic and refresher – trained to 2272 from 2250 a year.
The Guyana Defence Force Air Corps has recently inducted four second-hand aircraft – two Shorts Skyvans and two BN-2 Islanders – but the aircraft have been plagued with teething problem preventing their full utilization.
The Coast Guard, however, as the President noted, is in dire need of ocean-going patrol vessels to safeguard the country’s EEZ and its burgeoning oil fields.
The Coast Guard operates a former River-class minesweeper (GDF Essequibo), one LCU and fifteen boats (8 T-44 and 7 Metal Shark Defiant class) supplied by the United States.
