The Vekllei Coast Guard

The Vekllei Coast Guard (officially the Navy of the Parliament and distinct from the Navy of the Sovereign, i.e. the “Royal Navy”), is part of the country’s broad paramilitary commission and functions both as a civilian maritime police and military naval fleet depending on the mission.

Most often, its duties are conventional — search and rescue, law enforcement, and maritime patrols across Vekllei’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone. Its civilian parliamentary charter, however, is complicated by its participation in grey-zone operations and presence in international waters, largely as part of Vekllei’s ongoing fight to maintain sovereignty over the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea fish stocks. In this sense, Vekllei is among the most enthusiastic enforcers of the fishing treaties in the world.

In the postwar period, the Coast Guard has come to resemble a blue-water navy, and has a history of hailing, boarding and detaining foreign-flagged ships in international waters for encroachment on sovereign fish stocks on which Vekllei is dependent. In the typical siloed fashion of the Vekllei Armed Forces, it retains its own logistics and support companies, and even has its own commandos. This quasi-militarisation benefits the country’s political interests, which are to control the Atlantic and maintain security in its far-flung commonwealth that includes several independent states that do not otherwise retain coast guards of their own.

Depicted above is an armed sailor with the Coast Guard, and to his right his captain and petty officer, who wear white uniforms in the tradition of the Sovereign Navy. Pictured also is a hydrofoil motor launch used to inspect cargo on vessels bound for Vekllei’s ports, and a heavy-lift HMVV-56 “Tuna” helicopter used for boarding and resupply between ships.