The Armed Forces of Haiti (, FAd'H; ) are the military forces of the Republic of Haiti, composed of the Haitian Army, the Haitian Navy, and the Haitian Aviation Corps. The Force has about 1,300 active personnel as of July 2025.
The Haitian military originated during the Haitian Revolution as the Indigenous Army () that fought for independence, which was formally declared on 1 January 1804. Haiti became a militarized country over the next several decades to protect its independence from a possible return of French troops, and as a result the military dominated the government and administration, with the emergence of a military elite that held the political and economic power in the country. The military was reorganized in the 1880s, being divided between a small active army that underwent the reform, and a much larger reserve army consisting of the old forces. There was also a small navy. Between 1804 and 1915, all except one of Haiti's 26 heads of state were military officers.
The original Haitian Army was disbanded during the United States occupation of Haiti in 1915 and replaced by the American-led and trained Gendarmerie (). In 1934, it was renamed the and returned to Haitian command, before being renamed the Army of Haiti in 1947. Finally, it was changed to the Armed Forces of Haiti in 1958 during the rule of François Duvalier. After years of military interference in politics, including dozens of military coups and attempted coups, Haiti disbanded its military in 1995. The Haitian National Police, a civilian police force, was established that same year to replace the military in providing security.
On 17 November 2017, the armed forces were restored by President Jovenel Moise. The military was reestablished in 2018. The President suspended the previous executive orders by then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who suspended and disbanded the armed forces on 6 December 1995.
History
Origins The origins of Haiti's military lie in the Haitian Revolution. A decade of warfare produced a military cadre from which Haiti's early leaders emerged. Defeat of the French demonstrated Haiti's considerable strategic stamina and tactical capabilities, but Haiti's victory did not translate into a successful national government or a strong economy. Lacking a strong constitution, Haiti was usually ruled by force. The armed forces, who had been united against the French, fragmented into warring regional factions. The military very soon took control of almost every aspect of Haitian life. Officers assumed responsibility for the administration of justice and for municipal management. According to a Haitian diplomat, the country was in its earlier days "an immense military camp". Without viable civilian institutions, Haiti was vulnerable to military personalities, who permanently shaped the nation's authoritarian, personalist, and coercive style of governance.
19th century Haiti's defense fell victim to political vagaries. A readiness for battle and the initiation of defense-related engineering projects in the early 19th century turned out to be costly preparation for conflict against phantom armies. The engineering projects included construction of the citadel of La Ferrière in northern Haiti. Soon afterward, Haiti turned its attention toward the rest of the island of Hispaniola (La Isla Española), which Haiti controlled between 1822 and 1844. Controlling the whole island, however, drained the national treasury and induced torpor in the battle-hardened veterans of the wars of independence.
During the mid-19th century, prolonged instability weakened the military. By the end of the 19th century, Haiti's military had become little more than an undisciplined, ill-fed, and poorly paid militia that shifted its allegiances as battles were won or lost and as new leaders came to power. Between 1806 and 1879, an estimated 69 revolts against existing governments took place; another twenty uprisings, or attempted insurrections, broke out between 1908 and 1915.
During the second half of the 19th century, the army either failed to protect the central government or directly caused the government's collapse. Rural insurgent movements led by piquets and cacos limited the central government's authority in outlying areas. These groups carried on war into the 20th century; they were finally put down by the United States Marine Corps in 1919.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Haiti's political instability provoked interference of the great powers (France, Germany, and the United States). The increasing American interest in Haiti prompted the United States Navy to deploy to the country's ports fifteen times between 1876 and 1913 in order to protect American lives and property, and the United States Marines to occupy the whole country from 1915 to 1934.
The Haitian Navy was created in 1860 with the commissioning of a single gunboat. Two additional gunboats entered service in 1875 followed by a corvette ten years later. By 1900 three British and French-built gunboats had been launched. In 1902 the Haitian gunboat Crête-à-Pierrot had a brief engagement with a German warship. The Admiral of the Haitian fleet, Hammerton Killick, scuttled his ship rather than surrender.
20th century
United States occupation
The United States Marines disbanded Haiti's army, which consisted of an estimated 9,000 men, including 308 generals. In February 1916, the Haitian Constabulary (Gendarmerie d'Haïti) was formed. United States Marines and United States Navy officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) commanded the group. The Gendarmerie attempted to secure public safety, initially by subduing the cacos; to promote development, particularly road construction; and to modernize the military through the introduction of a training structure, a health service, and other improvements.
The United States occupation of Haiti brought order and resulted in some economic and social development. At the same time, the United States overhauled Haiti's disintegrated military infrastructure. The Gendarmerie became the Garde d'Haïti in 1928; the Garde formed the core of Haiti's armed forces after the United States administration ended. The United States sought to establish a modern, apolitical military force in Haiti. On the surface, it succeeded; the organization, the training, and the equipment of the Garde all represented improvements over the military conditions existing before the occupation.
After the United States occupation ended, the Haitian military was given the responsibility to ensure domestic law and order. This concern with internal, rather than with external security, endured throughout the 20th century.
Post-occupation period The Haitian Coast Guard was created in the late 1930s. The Haitian Air Force was created in 1943.
Haiti became a party to a number of international agreements, including the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (the Rio Treaty), the Charter of the Organization of American States, and the earlier Act of Chapultepec (1945). The nation's security concerns regarding neighboring the Dominican Republic and Cuba have been viewed since World War II within the broader framework of the United States strategic interests in the Caribbean. The fact that the FAd'H deployed relatively few of its units along the Dominican border, despite a history of conflicts with its neighbor is reflective of Haiti's limited national security concerns, within this scheme.
Korean War At the time of the Korean War, the United States Deputy Representative at the United Nations Ernest A. Gross approached several member states for voluntary troop contributions to the United Nations police action in the Korean Peninsula. The Representative of Haiti, Ambassador Ernest G. Chauvet, informed Gross that his government at the time did not have a standing "army"; In the early 1950s, the Haitian Armed Forces were the "Haitian Guard" or «Garde d'Haïti» (successor to the Gendarmerie of Haiti), which was closer to a gendarmerie than an army. Chauvet still offered to gather volunteers "without difficulty", who would be trained and transported by others.
By late 1951 Haiti would be one of only 6 nations to offered specific contingents to the already present UN Forces in Korea, upon request from the Collective Measures Committee (CMC) under Article 43. A small contingent of Haitian combat troops, embedded with U.S. forces, would join the war against the communist forces of North Korea and China. In 1955, the United States Department of the Army would present military decoration to 10 members of Latin American Forces: Colonel Roger Villedrouin of Haiti would be awarded the Legion of Merit presented by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Duvalier period
After the establishment of the Duvalier regime in 1957, various external threats have had little impact on Haiti's security. The Duvaliers' tight control eliminated all Marxist influences in the country, thus minimizing the effects of the Cuban Revolution. It was not until 1986 that a communist party, the Unified Party of Haitian Communists (Parti Unifié Communiste Haïtien, PUCH), openly operated in the country. Cuba helped some Haitian refugees travel to Florida in the 1980s, but its overall interest in Haitian affairs has been unclear. The severity of Haiti's political and economic crises, along with the high profile of the United States in the region, has limited involvement by other countries in Haitian affairs.
Threats to Haiti's internal security, however, have been numerous during the past four decades. Between 1968 and 1970, the government repulsed three invasions supported by exiled Haitians. In 1970 the Coast Guard mutinied. The Coast Guard's five ships, low on fuel and ammunition, went into exile at the United States military base at Guantánamo, Cuba. In the early 1980s, Haitian military forces and members of the Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (VSN) defeated a small exile force on the Ile de la Tortue (Tortuga Island). An airplane dropped a bomb on the National Palace in 1982, and a car bomb exploded nearby in 1983. Exile groups, however, never posed a significant military challenge to the army and the VSN. The real challenge to these forces came in the popular domestic disturbances that developed after 1984.
Post-Duvalier period After the collapse of the Duvalier regime in 1986, the FAd'H developed an agenda to exert national political leadership, to restore public order, and to gain control over the VSN and other paramilitary groups, but carrying out this program proved difficult, given Haiti's political, economic, and foreign policy situations.
The main mission of Haiti's armed forces in the late 1980s continued to be internal security. After 1986, however, this mission regularly conflicted with the national leadership role of the FAd'H. Generational and political differences among officers and a scarcity of resources for the military led to chronic instability that culminated in military coups. These coups caused the government to change hands four times in 1988. A fifth coup in early 1989, however, failed to topple the government. The two most important problems that the FAd'H had to face were, first, a divided senior military command and, second, suspicious junior officers and NCO personnel. These problems became apparent in 1988 when Avril ousted Namphy and subsequently dismissed a number of senior officers. The degree to which NCOs may have been manipulated in this process and the extent to which lower army echelons had begun to shape their own political attitudes caused some observers to doubt the military's future as an institution.