Armed forces, personnel, equipment, deployments: the complete military file on Guyana.
| Active personnel (est.) | 3,500 |
|---|---|
| World rank by personnel | #153 / 162 |
POWER 51.21/100 — The Magna Power score is our 0–100 composite of structural national power — five dimensions, 100+ indicators. It is the Bureau's own assessment, not a mirror of World Bank or CIA figures.
Momentum +5 — Quarterly momentum: the Bureau's read on the country's trajectory over the last quarter, from −10 (deteriorating fast) to +10 (accelerating).
Guyana's oil transformation kept compounding — production scaling, revenues flowing — with no event to interrupt the fastest growth story in the hemisphere.
The question remains distribution, not direction: this quarter the direction stayed sharply up.
the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) is a unified force with ground, air, and coast guard components, as well as the Guyana National Reserve (2026)
approximately 3,500 active-duty Guyana Defense Forces (2025)
the military has a limited inventory comprised mostly of older or secondhand platforms imported from a variety of foreign suppliers, including Brazil, China, India, the former Soviet Union, the UK, and the US (2025)
18 years of age or older for voluntary military service; no conscription (2026)
the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) was established in 1965; its primary missions are territorial defense, maritime security, search and rescue, medical evacuation, aviation and engineering support, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, peace support operations, and community engagement; key areas of concern include illegal fishing, narcotics trafficking, piracy, porous borders, and threats from Venezuela over disputed territory; the GDF participates in both bilateral and multinational exercises and has relationships with Brazil, China, France, the UK, and the US Guyana joined the Caribbean Regional Security System (RSS) in 2022; RSS signatories (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) agreed to prepare contingency plans and assist one another, on request, in national emergencies, prevention of smuggling, search and rescue, immigration control, fishery protection, customs and excise control, maritime policing duties, protection of off-shore installations, pollution control, national and other disasters, and threats to national security (2025)
