Royal Bahamas Defence Force
Encyclopedia
The Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) is the navy of The Bahamas
. Since The Bahamas does not have an army or an air force, its navy composes the entirety of its armed forces. Under The Defence Act, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force has been mandated to defend The Bahamas
, protect its territorial integrity, patrol its waters, provide assistance and relied in times of disaster, maintain order in conjunction with the law enforcement agencies of The Bahamas, and carry out any such duties as determined by the National Security Council. The Defence Force is also a member of Caricom's Regional Security Task Force. The task force has seen action in the United Nations
mandate in Haiti
1994.
counterparts. With about 1,000 members, it is the largest of the Commonwealth Caribbean navies. Several changes in equipment have been seen in the history of the RBDF. In the beginning, the British uniform was worn by RBDF personnel; now U.S. woodland camouflage is worn (as opposed to the U.S. Army universal camouflage worn by The Royal Bahamas Police Force
Drug Enforcement Unit).
The first weapons used were the Sterling submachine gun
and the L1A1 SLR; now the American M4
rifle and the Heckler and Koch UMP submachine gun are employed for duty.
Unlike other British Commonwealth Land Forces, there are no regular infantry brigades. Instead, there are special forces. These are the Special Operations Unit, which is the seagoing section associated with all ships and small craft, and the Commando Squadron, which acts as an amphibious infantry unit and also performs security duties. The Commando Squadron is a sizeable force of at least 500 Special Marine Commandos. Training is conducted with the U.S. Navy Seals in special naval warfare and also with the British Royal Marines
. A common training practice is to have a marine recruit conduct a two mile swim carrying a forty pound rucksack.
The M101
105 mm Howitzer towed artillery is also employed in RBDF service.
There are two career tracks in the RBDF: Marine (rating) & Officer. The enlisted personnel ranks range from Marine to Force Chief Petty Officer. The Officer ranks range from Midshipman to Commodore. The force is organized and trained along the lines of the British Royal Navy
and many of the officers attend British service academies.
The Headquarters of the Defence Force are at RBDF Base HMBS Coral Harbour, on New Providence Island. The commander officer, known as "Commander Defence Force" is Commodore Roderick Bowe
, who relieved Commodore Clifford 'Butch' Scavella on the 21 of January, 2010. Additional bases are located in Matthew Town, Inagua
and Freeport, Grand Bahama
.
The RBDF uses the British Royal Navy
style of rank insignia, and all ships carry the title HMBS (Her Majesty’s Bahamian Ship).
Due of the lack of ships, most RBDF members do not spend time at sea, and are used for other military or non-military roles.
Peacekeeping missions have been conducted with the participation of RBDF members in El Salvador and Haiti.
B and the Partenavia P.68
Observer. The aircraft are used chiefly for reconnaissance and maritime patrol. They also provide surveillance of large areas and aid in the strategic deployment of surface crafts.
The commander also stated that there are many programs being studied set to improve the Defence Force's capacity to provide security for Bahamian territorial waters. The future revitalization of the RBDF will include the provision of additional aircraft, increased manpower & salaries, base facilities and command outposts.
In the early summer of 2008, these overhauls had begun. The RBDF has also reduced numbers by a third in order to remove undesirable personnel from the military ranks. Service vehicles and patrol boats are in more regular use and both illegal immigrant seizures and illegal drug seizures have increased proportionately to the revamped force finally being used. One of the major seizures was undertaken by boat P-48. Roughly 692 kilogram sized bales of marijuana were taken off a "go-fast" boat (a light offshore racing boat) with a local street value of roughly 750,000 USD and a Miami street value at well over 1.3 million USD.
The only combat action the RBDF has ever been involved with has been against Cuba
. On 10 May 1980, the HMBS Flamingo attempted to arrest two Cuban fishing vessels, the Ferrocem 165 and the Ferrocem 54, for poaching in Bahamian waters. In retaliation, two Cuban MiG-21s invaded Bahamas airspace and fired on the patrol boat. The Cubans sank the ship with their 23 mm cannons, and fired upon Marines in distress in the water. Fenrick Sturrup, Austin Smith, David Tucker and Edward Williams, all Bahamian Defence Force Marines, were killed in the attack. Fifteen crewmen and the Commander made it safely to Duncan Town, on Ragged Island, after being picked up by the very fishing vessels they had boarded. The poachers were convicted in July 1980, and Cuba eventually admitted responsibility, paying the Bahamas $10 million in compensation for the incident.
The Bahamas
The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...
. Since The Bahamas does not have an army or an air force, its navy composes the entirety of its armed forces. Under The Defence Act, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force has been mandated to defend The Bahamas
The Bahamas
The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...
, protect its territorial integrity, patrol its waters, provide assistance and relied in times of disaster, maintain order in conjunction with the law enforcement agencies of The Bahamas, and carry out any such duties as determined by the National Security Council. The Defence Force is also a member of Caricom's Regional Security Task Force. The task force has seen action in the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
mandate in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
1994.
The Force
The RBDF is strictly a naval force, and therefore differs from the rest of its CaribbeanCaribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
counterparts. With about 1,000 members, it is the largest of the Commonwealth Caribbean navies. Several changes in equipment have been seen in the history of the RBDF. In the beginning, the British uniform was worn by RBDF personnel; now U.S. woodland camouflage is worn (as opposed to the U.S. Army universal camouflage worn by The Royal Bahamas Police Force
Royal Bahamas Police Force
The Royal Bahamas Police Force is the national law enforcement agency of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. The RBPF is located within the portfolio of the Ministry of National Security. The police force was established on 1 March 1840. The force is headquartered on the hill on East Street, New...
Drug Enforcement Unit).
The first weapons used were the Sterling submachine gun
Sterling submachine gun
The Sterling submachine gun is a British submachine gun which was in service with the British Army from 1944 until 1994, when it was phased out with the introduction of the L85A1 assault rifle.-History:...
and the L1A1 SLR; now the American M4
M4 Carbine
The M4 carbine is a family of firearms tracing its lineage back to earlier carbine versions of the M16, all based on the original AR-15 designed by Eugene Stoner and made by ArmaLite. It is a shorter and lighter variant of the M16A2 assault rifle, with 80% parts commonality.It is a gas-operated,...
rifle and the Heckler and Koch UMP submachine gun are employed for duty.
Unlike other British Commonwealth Land Forces, there are no regular infantry brigades. Instead, there are special forces. These are the Special Operations Unit, which is the seagoing section associated with all ships and small craft, and the Commando Squadron, which acts as an amphibious infantry unit and also performs security duties. The Commando Squadron is a sizeable force of at least 500 Special Marine Commandos. Training is conducted with the U.S. Navy Seals in special naval warfare and also with the British Royal Marines
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
. A common training practice is to have a marine recruit conduct a two mile swim carrying a forty pound rucksack.
The M101
M101
M101 or M-101 may refer to:* Myasishchev M-101T Gzhel, an aircraft produced in Russia* Messier 101, or the Pinwheel Galaxy, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major* M101 howitzer, a 105 mm light howitzer...
105 mm Howitzer towed artillery is also employed in RBDF service.
Equipment
- S&W 5906TSW Pistol
- Glock 17 PistolGlock pistolThe Glock pistol, sometimes referred to by the manufacturer as Glock "Safe Action" Pistol, is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Glock Ges.m.b.H., located in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria. The company's founder, engineer Gaston Glock, had no experience with firearm design or...
- Beretta 92Beretta 92The Beretta 92 is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. The model 92 was designed in 1972 and production of many variants in different calibers continues today...
FS Pistol - 9mm H&K MP5A2Heckler & Koch MP5The Heckler & Koch MP5 is a 9mm submachine gun of German design, developed in the 1960s by a team of engineers from the German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch GmbH of Oberndorf am Neckar....
SMG - 9mm IMI Uzi SMG
- 9mm IMI Mini-Uzi SMG
- 9mm Sterling MK-IV\L-2A3Sterling submachine gunThe Sterling submachine gun is a British submachine gun which was in service with the British Army from 1944 until 1994, when it was phased out with the introduction of the L85A1 assault rifle.-History:...
SMG - 18.5mm 12 gauge SPAS-12 Shotgun
- 18.5mm 12 gauge Remington Model-870P Shotgun
- 7.62mm FN FALFN FALThe Fusil Automatique Léger or FAL is a self-loading, selective fire battle rifle produced by the Belgian armaments manufacturer Fabrique Nationale de Herstal . During the Cold War it was adopted by many North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries, with the notable exception of the United States...
50-00\ L-1A1 SAR - 7.62mm Remington 700P
- 5.56mm IMI GalilIMI GalilThe Galil is a family of Israeli small arms designed by Yisrael Galil and Yaacov Lior in the late 1960s and produced by Israel Military Industries Ltd of Ramat HaSharon...
AR - 5.56mm Colt M4 CarbineM4 CarbineThe M4 carbine is a family of firearms tracing its lineage back to earlier carbine versions of the M16, all based on the original AR-15 designed by Eugene Stoner and made by ArmaLite. It is a shorter and lighter variant of the M16A2 assault rifle, with 80% parts commonality.It is a gas-operated,...
SAR - 5.56mm Colt M16A-1M16 rifleThe M16 is the United States military designation for the AR-15 rifle adapted for both semi-automatic and full-automatic fire. Colt purchased the rights to the AR-15 from ArmaLite, and currently uses that designation only for semi-automatic versions of the rifle. The M16 fires the 5.56×45mm NATO...
AR - 5.56mm AR-15R-600 AR
- 7.62mm FN MAGFN MAGThe FN MAG is a Belgian 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, designed in the early 1950s at Fabrique Nationale by Ernest Vervier. It has been used by more than 80 countries, and it has been made under licence in countries such as Argentina, Egypt, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the...
60-20 LMG - 15 M101 105mm Towed HowitzerM101 howitzerThe 105 mm M2A1 howitzer was the standard light field howitzer for the United States in World War II, seeing action in both European and Pacific theaters. Entering production in 1941, it quickly entered the war against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Pacific, where it gained a reputation...
- Land-Rover 4x4
Ships
The main ships in the force are two Bahamas-class Offshore patrol vessels, and three smaller Protector-class OPVs. Most of the missions consist of anti-poaching patrols, anti-drug immigration enforcement, search and Rescue, or general National Defence missions.Structure
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
and many of the officers attend British service academies.
The Headquarters of the Defence Force are at RBDF Base HMBS Coral Harbour, on New Providence Island. The commander officer, known as "Commander Defence Force" is Commodore Roderick Bowe
Roderick Bowe
Roderick Bowe is a Bahamian military officer and the 6th commodore of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. He superseded Commodore Clifford W. Scavella who left office on January 21, 2009 who is now the special envoy to Haiti. In a public statement, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, stated that Mr...
, who relieved Commodore Clifford 'Butch' Scavella on the 21 of January, 2010. Additional bases are located in Matthew Town, Inagua
Inagua
Inagua is the southernmost district of the Bahamas comprising the islands of Great Inagua and Little Inagua.Great Inagua is the third largest island in The Bahamas at 596 sq mi and lies about 55 miles from the eastern tip of Cuba. The island is about 55 x 19 miles in extent, the highest point...
and Freeport, Grand Bahama
Grand Bahama
Grand Bahama is one of the northernmost of the islands of the Bahamas, and the closest major island to the United States, lying off the state of Florida. Grand Bahama is the fifth largest island in the Bahamas island chain of approximately 700 islands and 2,400 cays...
.
The RBDF uses the British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
style of rank insignia, and all ships carry the title HMBS (Her Majesty’s Bahamian Ship).
Due of the lack of ships, most RBDF members do not spend time at sea, and are used for other military or non-military roles.
Peacekeeping missions have been conducted with the participation of RBDF members in El Salvador and Haiti.
Air Wing
The RBDF operates three aircraft; a Super King Air 350, Cessna 208Cessna 208
The Cessna 208 Caravan is a single turboprop engine, fixed-gear short-haul regional airliner and utility aircraft built in the United States by Cessna. The airplane typically seats nine passengers, with a single person crew, although with a FAR Part 23 waiver, it can seat up to fourteen passengers...
B and the Partenavia P.68
Partenavia P.68
-See also:...
Observer. The aircraft are used chiefly for reconnaissance and maritime patrol. They also provide surveillance of large areas and aid in the strategic deployment of surface crafts.
Equipment
| Aircraft | Origin | Type | Versions | In service | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aero Commander 500 |  United States |
Light utility transport | 0 | 3 in service with the Air Wing from 1976 to 1990 | |
| Beechcraft Super King Air 350 Beechcraft Super King Air The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by the Beech Aircraft Corporation . The King Air line comprises a number of model series that fall into two families: the Model 90 series, Model 100 series , Model 200 series and Model 300 series... |
United States |
Light transport | 3 | in service since 2004 | |
| Cessna 208 Caravan Cessna 208 The Cessna 208 Caravan is a single turboprop engine, fixed-gear short-haul regional airliner and utility aircraft built in the United States by Cessna. The airplane typically seats nine passengers, with a single person crew, although with a FAR Part 23 waiver, it can seat up to fourteen passengers... |
United States |
Light transport | 1 | in service since 2007 | |
| Cessna 404 Titan Cessna 404 |-See also:-External links:* *... |
United States |
Light transport | 0 | 1 in service with the Air Wing from 1991 to 2008 | |
| Cessna 421C Golden Eagle Cessna 421 -See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Taylor, John W.R. . Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1976-77. London:Jane's Yearbooks, 1976. ISBN 0-354-00538-3.... |
United States |
Light transport | 0 | 1 in service with the Air Wing from 1988 to 2002 | |
| Partenvia P.68 Observer Partenavia P.68 -See also:... |
 Italy |
Light transport aircraft | 1 | in service since 2009 | |
| Piper PA-31 Navajo | United States |
Light transport | 2 | in service since 1993 | |
Call for an overhaul of the RBDF
During a radio interview on the Bahamas radio station Love 97 'Issues of the Day' show on 5 December 2006, the RBDF commander stated that there were only two patrol boats operational and there is only one plane in service, but no pilot trained to fly the aircraft. He also stated that up to 25% of the ranks of the Defence Force are 'bad apples' and need to be weeded out.The commander also stated that there are many programs being studied set to improve the Defence Force's capacity to provide security for Bahamian territorial waters. The future revitalization of the RBDF will include the provision of additional aircraft, increased manpower & salaries, base facilities and command outposts.
In the early summer of 2008, these overhauls had begun. The RBDF has also reduced numbers by a third in order to remove undesirable personnel from the military ranks. Service vehicles and patrol boats are in more regular use and both illegal immigrant seizures and illegal drug seizures have increased proportionately to the revamped force finally being used. One of the major seizures was undertaken by boat P-48. Roughly 692 kilogram sized bales of marijuana were taken off a "go-fast" boat (a light offshore racing boat) with a local street value of roughly 750,000 USD and a Miami street value at well over 1.3 million USD.
History
By an Act of Parliament, the RBDF became an official entity on 31 March 1980, falling under the Ministry of National Security. The Queen of The Bahamas, Elizabeth II, is Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Force with her ceremonial role exercised by the Bahamas' Governor General. The Defence Force also has adopted its own system of medals and awards.The only combat action the RBDF has ever been involved with has been against Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. On 10 May 1980, the HMBS Flamingo attempted to arrest two Cuban fishing vessels, the Ferrocem 165 and the Ferrocem 54, for poaching in Bahamian waters. In retaliation, two Cuban MiG-21s invaded Bahamas airspace and fired on the patrol boat. The Cubans sank the ship with their 23 mm cannons, and fired upon Marines in distress in the water. Fenrick Sturrup, Austin Smith, David Tucker and Edward Williams, all Bahamian Defence Force Marines, were killed in the attack. Fifteen crewmen and the Commander made it safely to Duncan Town, on Ragged Island, after being picked up by the very fishing vessels they had boarded. The poachers were convicted in July 1980, and Cuba eventually admitted responsibility, paying the Bahamas $10 million in compensation for the incident.
External links
- Royal Bahamas Defence Force Official Website
- The Bahama Journal: Commodore Admits “Rotten Apples”
- The Bahama Journal: Defence Force Gets New Chief
- Bahamas Government Website: Royal Bahamas Defence Force
- The Bahama Journal: Bottom Line: Defense Force Re-Organization
- The Nassau Guardian: Commodore to retire
- The Nassau Guardian: Sunk HMBS Flamingo 24th anniversary observed today
- http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/ministry_of_tourism_updates/Exclusive_Behind_the_Scenes_Defence_Force_catches_bad_guy_on7991.shtml
- Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF), Air Wing