Tartus Naval Base (720th Material-Technical Support Point)

Tartus is a Russian Navy logistics installation on the northern edge of the sea port of Tartus, on Syria's Mediterranean coast. Formally designated the 720th Material-Technical Support Point, it functions as a resupply, servicing and repair point rather than a full naval base, and was for many years the Russian Navy's only such facility outside the former Soviet Union. Under a 2017 agreement Russia obtained a 49-year, free-of-charge lease, jurisdiction over the site, the right to keep up to eleven vessels there including nuclear-powered ships, and immunity for its personnel and materiel from Syrian jurisdiction.

From September 2013 the facility was charged with servicing and repairing ships of the Russian Navy's permanent Mediterranean Sea Task Force, and from 2015 it supported Russian operations in Syria as the terminus of the sealift from Novorossiysk known as the Syrian Express, receiving landing ships and cargo vessels carrying armaments and supplies. Berthing has historically been limited, with vessels using floating piers or anchoring offshore; the facility has usually hosted no more than half a dozen ships. Following the fall of the Assad government, Russian warships departed in December 2024 and the last stationed vessels had left by February 2025. The lease treaty was subsequently described as suspended but not terminated, and access appeared to be granted case by case. Russian vessels continued to call as a staging post through 2025 and 2026, including the corvette Stoykiy, the frigate Admiral Kasatonov, the replenishment vessel Akademik Pashin, and Grachonok- and Raptor-class patrol boats. In August 2026 Russia and Syria announced an agreement governing future Russian use of the Syrian bases.

Infrastructure is limited, supporting light logistics and only very restricted maintenance; the facility contains no shipyard. A second floating pier was added in September 2008, and modernisation work was announced in 2009. The Russian Khmeimim Air Base lies to the north and has been resupplied by road convoys running from Tartus. The adjacent commercial Port of Tartus is operated separately, passing to DP World under a 30-year concession in November 2025.

The Soviet Union established the facility in 1971 under a Soviet–Syrian agreement, to support the 5th Operational Squadron in the Mediterranean. After the Soviet Navy evacuated Alexandria and Mersa Matruh in 1977, ships and property were transferred to Tartus and the site was reorganised as the 229th Naval and Estuary Vessel Support Division, upgraded in 1984 to the 720th Material-Technical Support Point. Use fell away after 1991 and expansion resumed from 2009.