The Ghana Navy (GN) is the naval warfare organizational military branch of the Ghanaian Armed Forces (GAF).
The nucleus of the Ghana Navy is the Gold Coast Naval Volunteer Force formed during World War II.
Following Ghana's attainment of independent nationhood on 6 March 1957 from the UK, the country's military was reorganized and expanded to meet its new challenges.
[2] In September 1961 Nkrumah terminated the employment of British officers in the armed forces: the first Ghanaian to become Chief of the Naval Staff was Rear Admiral David Animle Hansen, who was transferred from the Ghana army to head the navy.
[3] The Ghana Navy command structure consists of the Naval Headquarters at Burma Camp, Accra.
The warship was laid down by Yarrow Shipbuilders in Scotland under the name Black Star, but when Nkrumah was deposed in a coup in the following year, the project was cancelled.
The ship was eventually bought by the Royal Navy, commissioned as HMS MERMAID, and then sold to Malaysia as the KD Hang Tuah.
[17] The Ghanaian Defence Minister, Lieutenant General J. H. Smith, announced in June 2010 that over 10 ships would be acquired as part of a short-term plan to re-equip the navy, and defend Ghana's exclusive economic zone.