Governor
Nigel Dakin announced in early December 2019 that the Turks and Caicos was going to build its own defence regiment, the Turks and Caicos Regiment, with the assistance of the United Kingdom
Ministry of Defence, similar to the
Royal Bermuda Regiment, the
Cayman Islands Regiment, the
Royal Montserrat Defence Force, the
Falkland Islands Defence Force, and the
Royal Gibraltar Regiment. The Turks and Caicos Regiment, like the Royal Bermuda Regiment and the Cayman Islands Regiment, would focus on increasing the nation's security, and, in times of natural disasters, the regiment would be trained in engineering and communications. In mid-December 2019, a team from the
United Kingdom Ministry of Defence was on Turks and Caicos to start building the regiment. It is projected that the Turk and Caicos Regiment will become operational sometime in the third quarter of 2020. In spring 2020, a Security and Assistance Team from the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence arrived in Turks and Caicos to assist with the
COVID-19 pandemic, the
2020 Atlantic hurricane season, and to help build the new Turks and Caicos Regiment. In early June 2020, Lieutenant Colonel Ennis Grant was appointed as commanding officer of the new Turks and Caicos Regiment. An additional five permanent staff and forty reserve posts consisting of non-commissioned officers and marines will be recruited later in 2020. The first passing out parade occurred in summer 2021. In late March 2023,
General Sir Patrick Sanders, the British Army's
Chief of the General Staff, visited the Caribbean on a number of meetings on British-Caribbean Defence. One of these stops was to the Turks & Caicos Islands, during his stop he met with the Governor, Premier, and the Turks & Caicos Islands Regiment. General Sir Patrick Sanders was made Honorary Colonel of the Turk & Caicos Islands Regiment. His visit was also joined by
Brigadier The Rt. Hon. the
Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton, the Honorary Colonel of the
Cayman Islands Regiment. == Commanding officers ==