Lebanese Navy

The Lebanese Navy (al-Quwwat al-Bahriyya al-Lubnaniyya) is a branch of the Lebanese Armed Forces rather than an independent service, subordinated to the LAF General Command in Yarze and headed by a commander holding rear admiral rank. Manpower is in the range of 1,500 to 2,000 personnel.

The force operates no submarines, frigates or corvettes, and its largest unit is Trablous, a 43.5-metre composite-hulled coastal security craft of the LCSC 42 / Advanced Multimission Platform type built by RiverHawk Fast Sea Frames in Tampa and supplied through United States Foreign Military Sales. Below it, the inventory centres on Marine Protector-class 87-foot cutters of Bollinger Shipyards construction transferred by the United States, one of which carries the name Saida, alongside British-built Attacker- and Tracker-class inshore patrol boats, the German Fassmer FPB 20 Naqoura, and Tabarja, a former German border-guard security boat. Fast interception is handled by French Sillinger 1200 Rafale craft and by 11-metre rigid-hulled inflatable boats of United States origin. Sealift and logistics rest on two ex-French EDIC-type landing craft, Sour and Damour. Armament across the fleet is limited to 20 mm and 25 mm cannon, including Nexter Narwhal remote mounts, and machine guns; no vessel carries anti-ship missiles, and the navy operates no organic manned aircraft, though it fields tactical surveillance UAVs.

Headquarters and the principal facility is Beirut Naval Base in the first basin of the Port of Beirut, reconstructed with German funding after the 2020 port explosion. Jounieh Naval Base in Keserwan houses the Lebanese Army Naval Academy and the Naval Forces School, whose new building was opened with German assistance. Subordinate naval stations are maintained at Tripoli, Sidon and Tyre. Surveillance is coordinated through a maritime operations centre linked to a coastal radar chain built with American and British support.

Missions comprise territorial-sea and exclusive economic zone surveillance, interdiction of smuggling and irregular migration, port and offshore installation security including the hydrocarbon blocks adjacent to the maritime boundary delimited with Israel, and search and rescue. The navy works alongside the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force, which enforces the arms embargo under Security Council Resolution 1701. Following Resolution 2790, adopted in August 2025, UNIFIL received a final mandate extension to 31 December 2026 ahead of drawdown, and a standard operating procedure signed at Beirut Naval Base in December 2025 by the Task Force and Lebanese Navy commanders recast the Task Force as an advisory, mentoring and observation element while transferring responsibility for securing Lebanese waters to the Lebanese Navy across 2026.

Lebanon has no shipbuilding industry of its own; all units are acquired abroad, principally as donations or grant-aid transfers from the United States, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.