Military branches:
Royal Barbados Defense Force: Troops Command, Coast Guard (2005)
Military service age and obligation:
18 years of age for voluntary military service; volunteers at
earlier age with parental consent; no conscription (2001)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 18-49: 71,524
females age 18-49: 72,302 (2005 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 18-49: 54,510
females age 18-49: 54,889 (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
NA
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
NA
Military - note:
the Royal Barbados Defense Force includes a land-based Troop
Command and a small Coast Guard; the primary role of the land
element is to defend the island against external aggression; the
Command consists of a single, part-time battalion with a small
regular cadre that is deployed throughout the island; it
increasingly supports the police in patrolling the coastline to
prevent smuggling and other illicit activities (2005)
Transnational Issues Barbados
Disputes - international:
in 2005, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago agreed to compulsory
international arbitration that will result in a binding award
challenging whether the northern limit of Trinidad and Tobago's and
Venezuela's maritime boundary extends into Barbadian waters and the
southern limit of Barbadian traditional fishing; joins other
Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim that Aves Island
sustains human habitation, a criterion under the UN Convention on
the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which permits Venezuela to extend its
EEZ/continental shelf over a large portion of the Caribbean Sea
Illicit drugs:
one of many Caribbean transshipment points for narcotics bound for
Europe and the US; offshore financial center