Cartagena Naval Base (Arsenal de Cartagena)

Cartagena Naval Base, known in Spanish service as the Arsenal de Cartagena, is a Spanish Navy base and arsenal at Cartagena, on the Mediterranean coast of southeastern Spain. It is the Spanish Navy's principal Mediterranean installation. The base is owned by the Spanish Ministry of Defence and operated by the Spanish Navy, and is commanded by a vice admiral.

Cartagena is the home port of the Spanish submarine force, berthing the Galerna-class boats, and of the mine countermeasures force, comprising Segura-class minehunters. Also homeported are Descubierta-class corvettes, Chilreu-class and Toralla-class patrol vessels, and Meteoro-class offshore patrol vessels. The base supports a range of auxiliary and specialised units, including the submarine rescue ship Neptuno, the electronic warfare support ship Alerta, the polar research ships Hespérides and Las Palmas, and the transports Martín Posadillo and El Camino Español, which are owned by the Spanish Army and operated by the Navy.

The arsenal combines fleet berthing with shipbuilding and repair facilities. Dry-docking capability dates from the Cartagena Iron Drydock, brought into use in 1866, which also served to lift ships onto three horizontal slipways. The moats of the eighteenth-century dry docks were converted in 1918 into submarine docks and remain in that role, supporting the submarine flotilla based at the port. Workshops within the arsenal historically covered carpentry, rigging and blacksmithing alongside construction and maintenance work for fleet units.

The port was redeveloped from a commercial harbour into a naval base under Philip V as part of the expansion of the Spanish Navy. Construction of the arsenal began in late 1731 to designs by Sebastián Feringán, was continued from 1762 by Mateo Vodopich, and was completed in 1782 under Charles III at a cost of 112 million reales. The base was enlarged in 1849 during the reign of Isabel II, and electricity was introduced to the arsenal in 1889.