Naval Force

The naval tradition of the Albanian people is ancient. It begins with the Illyrians, who in the 5th to 2nd centuries BCE, created the most powerful naval fleet in the Adriatic. The famous Illyrian ship "Liburnia" was small, fast, and manoeuvrable for military purposes.

After the Roman and Byzantine rule, in the 14th century CE, the principalities of the Balshajt and Topiat created their naval powers, but the Ottoman conquest in the 15th century weakened the naval tradition.

With the Declaration of Independence on November 28, 1912, the first attempts were made to organize the Naval Forces by the government of Ismail Qemali, but the outbreak of World War I interrupted the government's engagement.

In 1925, the Albanian Parliament approved the budget for the purchase of two ships in Italy. These ships arrived in Durrës on December 25, 1925, and were named "Shqypnia" and "Skanderbeg". This date marks the creation of the Albanian Naval Forces. In 1934, another 4 motor torpedo boats, "Vlora", "Durrësi", "Saranda", and "Tirana", were purchased in Italy.

From 1945 to 1990, with the support of the Soviet Union and China, Albania established the Naval Fleet. In its arsenal, the Fleet included around 90 vessels such as submarines, corvettes, minesweepers, patrol boats, tugs, landing craft, water tankers, and patrol vessels, among others.

After the 1990s, the Naval Forces, like the entire Albanian military, underwent transformations. Today, it includes vessels of the Coastal Patrol as: "Iliria", "Oriku", "Butrinti", and "Lissus".