The Nicaraguan Navy, officially the Naval Force of the Nicaraguan Army, ( es, Fuerza Naval del Ejercito de Nicaragua) is the naval service branch of the Nicaraguan Armed Forces. The navy's mission is to ensure the defense and security of the islands, territorial waters and exclusive economic zone of Nicaragua in the Pacific Ocean and

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexic ...

. Founded on August 13, 1980 as the Sandinista Navy, it consisted of a few old

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 in the early 1980s. The Sandinistas acquired eight

Soviet 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, ...

Yevgenya class minesweepers, of which seven remained in 1993. Three Soviet Zhuk-class patrol boats were believed to be seaworthy, out of seven that remained at the end of 1990. Also believed to be operational are three

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

n fast patrol boats as well as two Vedette-type boats built in France and armed with Soviet 14.5mm machine guns. The primary mission was to discourage seaborne

Contra Contra may refer to: Places * Contra, Virginia * Contra Costa Canal, an aqueduct in the U.S. state of California * Contra Costa County, California * Tenero-Contra, a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland ...

attacks and to deter

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

-run operations such as the destruction of diesel storage facilities at Corinto in 1983 and the mining of

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the coun ...

n harbors in 1984. The

Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto C� ...

navy ('—MGS), which had reached a peak strength of 3,000 personnel in 1990, suffered a sweeping reduction to 800 by 1993. The commander of the navy was a

Sandinista Popular Army The Sandinista Popular Army (SPA) (or People's Army; , EPS) was the military forces established in 1979 by the new Sandinista government of Nicaragua to replace the Nicaraguan National Guard, following the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. I ...

('—EPS) officer with the rank of major. The principal bases of the MGS are at the ports of Corinto on the Pacific and

Puerto Cabezas Puerto Cabezas (; en, Bragman's Bluff; miq, Bilwi) is a municipality and city in Nicaragua. It is the capital of Miskito nation in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region. The municipality and the entire region are native American lands. ...

on the Caribbean. Other installations are at

El Bluff Bluff is a port city on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua within the bay of Bluefields. Bluff handles limited cargo and has basic piers. It is also a base for the sea-going fishing vessels on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast. The island that it sits on ...

near

Bluefields Bluefields is the capital of the South Caribbean Autonomous Region in Nicaragua. It was also the capital of the former Kingdom of Mosquitia, and later the Zelaya Department, which was divided into North and South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regi ...

and

San Juan del Sur San Juan del Sur is a municipality and coastal town on the Pacific Ocean, in the Rivas department in southwest Nicaragua. It is located south of Managua. San Juan del Sur is popular among surfers and is a vacation spot for many Nicaraguan ...

on the Pacific. Nicaragua ordered two additional patrol vessels based on the Damen Stan 4207 design in 2017. The vessels were commissioned as ''Soberanía'' I (409) and ''Soberanía'' II (411) in August 2019. Unlike many other nations vessels, which are designed solely for coast guard or environmental monitoring, these two have added a military sensor suite and a deck gun. Militarizing the vessels boosted their cost from $20 million USD to $65 million USD. The vessels are used, had previously been employed by

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

- HMJS ''Cornwall'' and HMJS ''Surrey''.

Fleet

Damen Stan 4207 patrol vessel The Dutch shipbuilding firm The Damen Group, designs and manufactures a range of patrol vessels, of various sizes, including the Damen Stan 4207 Patrol Vessels. The Damen Stan patrol vessel designs' names include a four digit code, where the first ...

- 2 (2 in service extra 2019) * Zhuk class PCs - 3, 1 in service GC301 "Río Segovia" *

Dabur Dabur Ltd is an Indian multinational consumer goods company, founded by S. K. Burman and headquartered in Ghaziabad. It manufactures Ayurvedic medicine and natural consumer products, and is one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) ...

class PCs - 10 status unknown 3 in service GC201 "Río Grande Matagalpa"; GC202 "Cacique Tenderí" GC205 "Río Escondido" * Sin Hung-class torpedo boat * Vedette - class PCs - 2 * PCs - status unknown * 4 Rodman

References

Military of Nicaragua Navies by country {{Nicaragua-stub