Libyan Navy ( ar, قوات البحرية الليبية) is the branch of the

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

n military responsible for naval warfare. Established in November 1962, Libyan Navy has been headed by Admiral Mansour Bader, Chief of Staff of the Libyan Naval Force. Before the

Libyan Civil War Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The ...

it was a fairly typical small navy with a few missile frigates, corvettes and

patrol boat A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and the ...

s to defend the coastline, but with a very limited self-defence capability. The Navy has always been the smallest of Libya's services and has always been dependent on foreign sources for equipment, spare parts, and training. Most of the Gaddafi era fleet was destroyed in 2011. Since the start of the ongoing internal conflict, the Libyan Navy is aligned with the

Government of National Accord The Government of National Accord ( ar, حكومة الوفاق الوطني) was an interim government for Libya that was formed under the terms of the Libyan Political Agreement, a United Nations–led initiative, signed on 17 December 2015. ...

(GNA), led by the Presidential Council in Tripoli, apart from coastal patrol vessels under the control of the

Libyan National Army The Libyan National Army (LNA; ar, الجيش الوطني الليبي, ''al-jaysh al-waṭaniyy al-Lībii'') is a component of Libya's military forces which were nominally a unified national force under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa ...

History

Its first

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster ...

was delivered in 1966. These were two s from the UK. Initially the effective force was limited to smaller vessels, but this changed after the rise of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 1969. From this time, Libya started to buy armaments from Europe and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. The Customs and Harbour police were amalgamated with the Navy in 1970, extending the Navy's mission to include anti-smuggling and customs duties. The total personnel of the Libyan Navy is about 8,000. During the 2011 Libyan civil war several elements of the Libyan Navy were destroyed by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

forces, including eight warships in the night before 20 May and one on 17 August. Two were also captured by the rebels at Benghazi. The Navy began the process of purchasing new boats in May 2012, mainly fast patrol boats for surveillance and border protection purposes, including the MRTP-20 fast attack boat. As of June 2012, the Libyan Navy has been headed by Commodore Hassan Ali Bushnak, Chief of Staff of the Libyan Naval Force. The British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

along with the Libyan Navy held joint exercises together at Dartmouth Naval College in the UK in June 2012. Libyan Navy ships under the command of Rida Issa, loyal to the internationally recognized

, took part in the operation to liberate the city of Sirte from

ISIL An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

. The Libyan Navy assisted ground forces and blocked off sea escape routes for the militants. On 20 June 2016, the European Union states announced that the naval mission in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, Operation Sophia, was extended until 2017, and helped train the Libyan Navy and

coast guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

. In 2021, the navy (except for the Haftar's forces) will be under new leadership of the new Libyan President,

Mohamed al-Menfi Mohamed Yunus al-Menfi ( ar, محمد يونس المنفي; born 3 March 1976) is a Libyan diplomat and politician from Tobruk. On 5 February 2021, he was chosen as the president of the Libyan Presidential Council at the Libyan Political Di ...

from the

Government of National Unity A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other nati ...

Background

The Navy's primary mission is to defend the coast. A strengthening of the service was made in the 1970s; the Soviet Union sold six s, and though two of them were only averagely serviceable, they became the main threats to the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in the Mediterranean Sea. In the meantime, Libya bought four Russian s, that even in the export versions were well-armed and powerful ships. Another four s were acquired from Italy. These had

Otomat The Otomat is an anti-ship and coastal defence missile developed by the Italian company Oto Melara jointly with Matra and now made by MBDA. The name comes, for the first versions, from the name of the two builders ("Oto Melara" and "Matra") an ...

long range missiles (in the Mk.I version without

datalink A data link is the means of connecting one location to another for the purpose of transmitting and receiving digital information (data communication). It can also refer to a set of electronics assemblies, consisting of a transmitter and a recei ...

for in-flight course correction) and modern artillery. They were less well-armed as anti-aircraft ships than the Nanuchkas but, with a displacement almost twice that of a typical fast attack craft, had

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...

(ASW) capabilities, with

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...

and light

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

es.

Actions

Libya's Navy first saw military action during an encounter with the

United States Sixth Fleet The Sixth Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy operating as part of United States Naval Forces Europe. The Sixth Fleet is headquartered at Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy. The officially stated mission of the Sixth Fleet in ...

in March 1986 in the Action in the Gulf of Sidra, when one

missile boat A missile boat or missile cutter is a small, fast warship armed with anti-ship missiles. Being smaller than other warships such as destroyers and frigates, missile boats are popular with nations interested in forming a navy at lower cost. They a ...

and a corvette were destroyed, and other ships were damaged by

A-6 Intruder The Grumman A-6 Intruder is an American twinjet all-weather attack aircraft developed and manufactured by American aircraft company Grumman Aerospace and operated by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. It was designed in response to a 1957 r ...

aircraft. Unusually, some of these attacks were performed successfully, with cluster bombs like the Mk.20 Rockeye which were designed as an anti-tank weapon. In July 1984, the

roll-on/roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...

ferry ''Ghat'' is believed to have mined the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

a few kilometres south of the Suez Canal. Approximately nineteen ships were damaged, including a Soviet

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermoda ...

which was the first to be hit on 9 July. The Islamic Jihad Organisation took responsibility for the incident. However, Egypt's President

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in ...

did not believe the claims and blamed Muammar Gaddafi and Libya. Other sources agreed after it was learnt that the ship took fifteen days to complete a voyage that normally would take eight days, the head of the Libyan minelaying division was on board, and that, when inspected by French officials in Marseilles the aft door was damaged. Due to concerns about the safety and potential lost revenue from the canal, Egypt asked for assistance in sweeping the mines in a complex operation that involved

minehunter A minehunter is a naval vessel that seeks, detects, and destroys individual naval mines. Minesweepers, on the other hand, clear mined areas as a whole, without prior detection of mines. A vessel that combines both of these roles is known as a ...

s from the French, British, Italian, Dutch, and US navies. The British located a Soviet-made mine, which was most likely sold to Libya after 1981 and was laid to cause problems for Egypt. Second Battle of Zawiya. Ships (1985)

Active ships

Former ships

Submarine

6 ×

Foxtrot-class submarine The Foxtrot class was the NATO reporting name of a class of diesel-electric patrol submarines that were built in the Soviet Union. The Soviet designation of this class was Project 641. The Foxtrot class was designed to replace the earlier Zulu cl ...

(1 left; not in commission) Armament :*10 × torpedo tubes (6 bow, 4 stern) :*22 × torpedo Origin: In 1982 Libya received six Foxtrot-class submarines from the Soviet Union. However, since 1984, no submarine patrols are reported to have been conducted. In 1993 one submarine was reported sunk, and another one was abandoned in Lithuania due to international sanctions. Further reports circulated about one submarine being refitted in 2003, but they have since turned out to be false. In 2011, during the Libyan civil war, one submarine (along with a frigate and a corvette) was captured by the rebels at the Benghazi naval base.

Frigate

1 × Vosper Mk.7 frigate :(scrapped in 1990) Armament :*1 × 114 mm Mk.8 gun :*2 × 40 mm/70 AA guns :*2 × 35 mm/90 Oerlikon :*2 × Seacat SSMs (Removed) :*1 × quad

Aspide Aspide (the Italian name for the asp) is an Italian medium range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile produced by Selenia (then by Alenia Aeronautica, now a part of Leonardo S.p.A.). It is provided with semi-active radar homing seeker. It is ...

SAM launcher :* 4 × single

AShM launchers :*1 × Limbo Mk.10 ASW mortar :* 2 × triple ASW

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s Origin: AlGhardabia2005

1 × (Type 1159) * 213 ''Al Ghardabia'': (struck by NATO in Tripoli Harbour 20 May 2011) Armament: :*4 ×

SS-N-2 The P-15 ''Termit'' (russian: П-15 "Термит"; en, termite) is an anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union's Raduga design bureau in the 1950s. Its GRAU designation was 4K40, its NATO reporting name was ''Styx'' or SS-N-2. China ...

C Styx SSMs :*2 × SA-N-4 SAMs :*4 × 76mm guns :*4 × 30mm guns :*4 × 406mm torpedoes :*1 ×

RBU-6000 The RBU-6000 Smerch-2 (Реактивно-Бомбовая Установка, ''Reaktivno-Bombovaja Ustanovka''; reaction engine-bomb installation & Смерч; waterspout) is a 213 mm caliber Soviet anti-submarine rocket launcher. It i ...

A/S mortar :*20 mines Origin:

Corvette

4 × Assad-class corvette * ''Al Tadjier'': (Destroyed by US Navy aircraft) * ''Al Tougour'': (Scrapped in 1993) * ''Al Kalij'': (Scrapped in 1993) * ''Al Hudud'': ( Scrapped in 1993) Armament :*1 × Otobreda 76 mm gun :*2 × 40 mm Breda Dardo guns :*2 × 35mm Oerlikon cannon :*4 × Albatros Selenia Aspide SAMs :*6 × Otomat anti-ship missiles :*6 × ASW torpedo tubes Origin: 3 × Nanuchka-class corvette * ''Ain Zaara'': (hit by the RAF, 20 May 2011) * ''Ain al Gazala'': (Damaged 25 March 1986, Decommissioned) * ''Ain Zaquit'': (sunk by US Navy in 1985) Armament :*4 × SS-N-2C Styx SSMs :*2 × SA-N-4 SAMs :*2 × 57mm guns MFBPs Origin:

Fast attack crafts

12 ×

Osa-class missile boat The Project 205 Moskit (''mosquito'') more commonly known by their NATO reporting name Osa, are a class of missile boats developed for the Soviet Navy in the late 1950s. Until 1962 this was classified as a large torpedo boat. The Osa class is ...

: (unknown fate) Armament :*4 × 30 mm guns :*4 ×

P-15 Termit The P-15 ''Termit'' (russian: П-15 "Термит"; en, termite) is an anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union's Raduga design bureau in the 1950s. Its GRAU designation was 4K40, its NATO reporting name was ''Styx'' or SS-N-2. China ...

(SS-N-2 Styx) AShMs Origin: Some of

Jaguar-class fast attack craft The Type 140 ''Jaguar''-class fast attack craft is an evolution of the German torpedo boats (E-boats) of World War II. The design was developed by Lürssen and designated ''Schnellboot 55''. The 20 boats that were built for the German Navy were ...

: (unknown fate) Armament :*16 × SS-12 missiles :*2 × 40 mm guns Origin: 9 × La Combattante IIa (''Beir Grassa'' class) *518 ''Sharara'' (ex-Beir Grassa): (Non-operational in 2011) *522 ''Shehab'' (ex-Beir Gzir): (Damage in May 2011 and abandoned) *524 ''Wahag'' (ex-Beir Gitfa):(Damage in May 2011 and abandoned) *526 ''Waheed'' (ex-Beir Glulud): (sunk on 24 March 1986 ) *528 ''Shouaiai'' (ex-Beir Algandula): (Damage in May 2011 and abandoned) *532 ''Shoula'' (ex-Beir Ktitat): (Damage in May 2011 and abandoned) *536 ''Bark'' (ex-Beir Alkardmen): (Non-operational in 2011) *538 ''Rad'' (ex-Beir Alkur): (Damage in May 2011 and abandoned) *542 ''Laheeb'' (ex-Beir Alkuesat): (Damage in May 2011 and abandoned) Armament :*4 × (2×2) Otomat MkI SSMs :*1 × Oto Melara 76mm gun :*1 × Bofors twin 40mm Origin:

Minesweepers

6 ×

Natya-class minesweeper The Natya class, Soviet designation Project 266M Akvamarin, were a group of minesweepers built for the Soviet Navy and export customers during the 1970s and 1980s. The ships were used for ocean minesweeping. Design The design evolved from the ...

(Type 266ME) Armament :*4 × 30mm guns :*4 × 25mm guns :*4 × 25mm guns :*10 mines :*Acoustic & Magnetic sweep Origin: 2 ×

Ham-class minesweeper The Ham class was a class of inshore minesweepers (IMS), known as the Type 1, of the British Royal Navy. The class was designed to operate in the shallow water of rivers and estuaries. All of the ships in the class are named for British place nam ...

* Zuara: (sold to Malta in 1973) * Brak: (broken up in 1973) Armament :*1 × Bofors 40mm gun :*1 × Oerlikon 20mm gun Origin:

Oceanographic research ship

1× a former trawler converted in the 1970 called Nour: (Stricken in 2002) Armament unknown Origin: (possibly)

Landing ship

1 × Polnocny-class landing ship Armament :*4 × Strela 2(SA-N-5) surface-to-air missile system :*2 × 30 mm AK-230 air defence gun :*2 × 140 mm Ogon 18-barreled rocket launcher Origin:

Naval infrastructure

Naval bases in the 2011 Libyan civil war

* Khoms * Benghazi * Misrata *

Tobruk Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near ...

* Tripoli * Derna * Sirte

Ship maintenance and repair facilities

Facilities at Tripoli with foreign technicians for repair of vessels of up to ; a 3,200-ton lift floating dock; floating docks at Benghazi and Tobruk.

References

* Levie, Howard. ''Mine Warfare at Sea''. Dordrecht, NL: Martinus Nijhoff, 1992. * ''War machines encliclopedy'', Limited publishing, in Italian version Armi da guerra. * Annati Massimo, ''Al diavolo le mine!'', RID magazine, Coop Riviera Ligure, Italy, June 2005.

External links

*
Libyan Navy
{{Navies in Africa Military of Libya Navies by country 1962 establishments in Libya Military units and formations established in 1962 First Libyan Civil War