And while they won't be using live rounds tomorrow, it's good to know that, as of today, the BDF has bullets to spare. The Force received a donation of 536,000 5.56 ammunition valued at $275,000. BDF Commander Lloyd Gillett says the donation will significantly enhance the Force's operational capabilities and U.S. Ambassador Robert Dieter added that this is only one of many ways in which his country is ensuring stability in the region.
Gen. Lloyd Gillett, BDF Commander
"This is going to be used to maintain the operational readiness of the BDF. We on an annual basis have personal weapons test that we have to take on a range and also all the troops that go out on the different training courses have to undergo live firing and so there is a constant need for new ammunition to replenish those that are being used but also what we try and do is rotate the ammunition that we have operationally deployed so that we always have a new type of ammunition so that if there is a need to use it, they are ready. We average about a hundred thousand rounds a year, expended on training, so that would be five years. But if the training tempo increases, then it would be less."
Robert Dieter, U.S. Ambassador
"The BDF has a reputation for being a professional and well training defense force and the U.S. government has a program to provide direct assistance to defense forces to help modernize and assist them in those countries in the region that have strong democratic traditions such as Belize. It isn't just providing bullets and trucks. The purpose of these programs is to strengthen the institutions of the countries that have strong democratic traditions and the BDF is a deserving institution in Belize for our support."
Last year, the U.S. withheld a small donation to the BDF when it emerged that Belize's diplomatic mission in New York had unpaid parking tickets. But that's another time, and right now, the donations are flooding in. This morning, the Taiwanese handed over a human resource system which was developed specifically for the BDF. It includes two servers and Gillett says it will enhance the BDF's resource management.
Taiwanese Ambassador,
"The important thing is of course to increase the efficiency in a management system of the BDF but today we see a successful case of our to country's participation to bring the efficiency and management in our system to the hands of the Belize Defense Force. My government is committed that we are going to cooperate with the government and the people of Belize in the field of IT which Taiwan is renowned for."
Gen. Lloyd Gillett,
"It will allow all the BDF locations to have access through a web, it is a web based program that allows all BDF locations to get online and able to check records, files, look at promotions-the history of all the BDF personnel will be available. It is a very secure system but it will offer us a lot of improvements in terms of efficiencies and it will allow us to capture things that used to be passed along in the old manual system. if somebody in Punta Gorda wanted to check to see what courses a BDF person had done, we'd have to send for the file in Price Barracks. The file would then go down to PG, they would look at the information, or send somebody from PG to Price Barracks to check the file. Now he can get online and look at the whole history of this particular office and it is at his fingertip."
Gillett says that plans are underway for the BDF to assist the Taiwanese Armed Forces by accommodating two of its officers in jungle warfare courses.
