Berenice Naval Base (Berenice Military Base)

Berenice Naval Base is the naval component of Berenice Military Base, an Egyptian Armed Forces complex on the Red Sea coast of southern Egypt, east of Aswan and about 90 km north of the Halayib Triangle. The Egyptian Ministry of Defence assigns the complex three tasks: securing Egypt's southern coasts, protecting Egyptian economic investments and natural resources in the Red Sea, and helping secure international shipping transiting to and from the Suez Canal.

The base is a permanent logistic base for the Egyptian Navy in the Red Sea sector and in Egyptian economic waters. The complex combines facilities for the navy, the air force, the ground forces and the air defence forces, and integrates armoured, signals, electronic warfare and air defence units in joint operations with the air force and the navy.

The military quay takes deep-draught units, including aircraft carriers, submarines and frigates. The air section was developed from the Ras Banas air base and has two runways of 3,000 m, 30 to 45 m wide, and 18 hardened aircraft shelters, each taking two fighters, with parking aprons, a general maintenance hangar, a technical area of about 45 buildings and some 51 administrative buildings. A separate civil airport within the complex has a 3,650 m runway. Support facilities include a military hospital, training grounds and firing ranges, logistic and accommodation facilities, and a seawater desalination plant producing 3,400 cubic metres a day. The complex covers about 150,000 feddans and carries 40 km of main roads and 110 km of internal roads.

It was built over about 18 months by expanding existing infrastructure at the port of Berenice and at the Ras Banas air base, and was inaugurated on 15 January 2020.