Pre-Independence

During the pre-independence period, the Somali Navy was established in conjunction with the Italian Navy

Italian Navy

Italian Navy may refer to:* Pre-unitarian navies of the Italian states* Regia Marina, the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Italy * Italian Navy , the navy of the Italian Republic...

, the latter of which also helped maintain security in Somali waters.

Post-Independence

During the post-independence period, the Somali Navy mostly did maritime patrol

Maritime patrol

Maritime patrol is the task of monitoring areas of water. Generally conducted by military and law enforcement agencies, maritime patrol is usually aimed at identifying human activities....

s so as to prevent ships illegally infringing on the nation's maritime borders. The Somali Navy and Somali Air Force also regularly collaborated. In addition, the Somali Navy carried out Search and Rescue

Search and rescue

Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...

 (SAR) missions.

Military Exercise

The Somali Navy participated in many navy exercises with the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

, Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 and Royal Canadian Navy

Royal Canadian Navy

The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

.

Recent history

In June 2009, the Somali Navy was re-established, and a new commander, Admiral Farah Omar Ahmed, was appointed. Up to 500 marines are presently training in Mogadishu, with their training expected to finish in December 2009. They are the first batch of a 5000-strong navy force.

Old equipment

• Osa-II missile-armed fast attack craft
  Osa class missile boat
  The Project 205 Tsunami, more commonly known by their NATO reporting name Osa, are a class of missile boats developed for the Soviet Navy in the early 1960s. The Osas are probably the most numerous class of missile boats ever built, with over 400 vessels constructed for both the Soviet Navy and for...
  
   (20)
• Mol PFT torpedo-armed fast attack craft (10)
• Polnocny class landing ship
  Polnocny class landing ship
  The Polnocny -class ships are amphibious warfare vessels. They were designed in Poland, in cooperation with the Soviet Navy and were built in Poland between 1967 and 2002. They now serve in several different navies, and some have been converted to civilian use...