Dégrad des Cannes Naval Base

Dégrad des Cannes is the French Navy's main base in the Caribbean and the principal naval installation in French Guiana. It lies at Remire-Montjoly, on the estuary of the Mahury River on the northern coast of South America, immediately east of the commercial port of the same name along the Route des Plages. It is one of five French naval bases outside Metropolitan France.

The base is commanded by a Commandant and manned by some 160 personnel drawn from the French Navy and the Maritime Gendarmerie. It homeports the Confiance-class patrol vessels La Confiance and La Résolue, both commissioned in 2017. These units conduct sovereignty patrols in Guianese waters, support the Maritime Gendarmerie in fisheries enforcement, and provide seaward protection of the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, west along the coast. The Maritime Gendarmerie operates the patrol boats Charente and Organabo from the territory; Charente arrived in 2022 as replacement for Mahury, which had been withdrawn as unserviceable.

Naval facilities consist of a pier for warships connected to the main barracks, together with a helipad. The base adjoins the commercial seaport of Dégrad des Cannes, through which nearly all of French Guiana's imports and exports pass.

The port at Dégrad des Cannes was built in 1974 to replace the congested harbour at Cayenne, which could not handle modern traffic, and the naval base was established alongside it on the eastern side of the site.