Safeguarding Bermuda

Coast Guard vessels return to port after an offshore exercise in April 2022. CPL. ANDRE PLACE/ROYAL BERMUDA REGIMENT

LT. COL. BENJAMIN L. BEASLEY/COMMANDER, BERMUDA REGIMENT

At 54 square kilometers, Bermuda inhabits an isolated yet geostrategic location 1,022 kilometers off the North Carolina coast. It played an outsized role for the United Kingdom during the 18th and 19th centuries as a staging point on the way to the U.K.’s New World colonies, and for the United States, from World War II until the 1990s as a base for Cold War anti-submarine operations. 

Bermuda has been self-governed since 1620 and has the functions of a state with defense retained by the U.K. government, exercised by the governor, who is also the commander in chief.

Britain’s responsibility for local defense is executed in the first instance by the 360-strong Royal Bermuda Regiment (RBR), primarily a reserve force that is part of the British Army’s Order of Battle but is locally raised and funded. The RBR’s mission is to provide military resources to protect Bermuda’s interests. It is principally focused on three areas: maritime security, force protection and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. It also has a limited but frequently used expeditionary capability.

RBR Coast Guard formation

In 2021, legislation created the RBR Coast Guard, assigning the unit responsibility for the safety and security of Bermuda’s inshore waters. The legislation combined the RBR’s Boat Troop and the Bermuda Police Service Marine Section. 

The RBR Coast Guard provides a 24-hour search and rescue capability covering Bermuda’s 22 square-kilometer territorial waters. It serves as an operational platform for other agencies and holds responsibility for operational diving. 

The RBR Coast Guard is a unique amalgamation of best practices from long-standing relationships with the Royal Navy, His Majesty’s Coast Guard, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Marine Corps, molded by local experience. 

U.K. partnership 

Bermuda’s deep military history, and the RBR’s extensive relationships with His Majesty’s Forces, set up the Coast Guard for significant initial success. Training engagements with the British Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) ships as they transit Bermuda on the way to the Caribbean for counternarcotics and contingent humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations have allowed for exchange and joint working. These include boarding and winch exercises with both RFA Argus (2020) and RFA Tideforce (2022).

Intelligence sharing with the U.K. Maritime Management Organisation is increasing situational awareness of Bermuda’s 321-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ) using data from satellites and shipboard automatic identification systems to predict future locations of boats. This effort is supported by the Bermuda government, Government House, the U.S. Coast Guard 5th District, which has an area of responsibility overlaying Bermuda, and coordination with the Caribbean Community Implementation Agency for Crime and Security, all sharing intelligence on illegal fishing between Bermuda and the Caribbean to the south.

The RBR Coast Guard is regularly visited by the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence and maritime organizations, which conduct audits and evaluations.

U.S. partnership

As a result of a relationship between the RBR and U.S. Marine Corps forces stationed in Bermuda, the RBR has conducted its annual camp at the Marines’ Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, since the 1970s, allowing access to real estate and facilities unavailable in Bermuda. For the RBR Coast Guard, this has meant routinely attending the U.S. Coast Guard’s Special Missions Training Center in Courthouse Bay at Camp Lejeune, where it has undertaken tactical coxswains and port security courses since the early 1990s.

In 2022, a trilateral memorandum of understanding was signed by the governments of Bermuda, the U.K. and the U.S. to allow for increased joint work and U.S. support to Bermuda in the event of a crisis.

Later in 2022, the U.S. Coast Guard commenced operations out of Bermuda on its Sentinel-class fast response cutters, conducting a series of patrols with Bermuda fisheries, customs, police and RBR personnel that targeted illegal fishing and drug smuggling outside of Bermuda’s territorial waters and extending to the fringes of Bermuda’s EEZ. 

U.S. engagement has also facilitated regional interoperability with the RBR’s participation in the Tradewinds exercise led by U.S. Southern Command. This has been an opportunity to gain specialist training and for the regiment to demonstrate its public order training. Engagement with U.S. Northern Command also has facilitated training that enhances the RBR’s capabilities. 

The RBR Coast Guard continues to benefit from U.K. and U.S. best practices for delivering local security.