Royal Bahamas Defence Force Commodore, Dr. Raymond King was recently the guest on The Rundown talk show where he spoke about the manpower needs of the force among other topics.

Dr. King said, “I would have done several human capital projections as a young officer for the command and the number we would have settled on is some 3,000. Three thousand, optimal, to really fulfill our mission cause as we move into those regions the north, the southern, central…you want to duplicate HMBS Coral Harbour and you want to run each facility as a base. It requires manpower, logistics, equipment, everything to duplicate it.”

The RBDF Commodore also outlined the force’s efforts to combat the manpower shortage. “We’ve had an ambitious plan. We would have recruited about 450 over the last four years. We’re aiming to get 150 by May-June of this year. We’re working towards those numbers. The attrition rate would have declined,” he said.

According to Dr. King the age of retirement for defence force officers has been extended from 55 to 60. He said, “thankfully the government agreed to a proposal that was put forward under my leadership to extend the age for the reserve component, to move that out from 60 to 65. So as person retire from the regular service they can give in the reserve component for another five years.”

The Rundown talk show is hosted by Clint Watson.