The main role of the Syrian Navy was to defend the country's coasts and ensure the security of the territorial waters of Syria.

The Syrian Navy was relatively small, with only 4,000 sailors, in addition to 2,500 reservists and 1,500 marines, prior to the collapse of Ba'athist Syria in 2024.

After the collapse of Ba'athist Syria in 2024, military assets and infrastructure fell into the hands of a new coalition which is attempting to reconstitute previous state institutions under new leadership, organization and direction, as a unified national force.

[5] 29 August is considered an annual holiday for the Syrian navy, which was celebrated every year,[6] and it was also chosen because it was the anniversary of the naval Battle of the Masts in 654.

During the Yom Kippur War on 6–7 October 1973, the Syrian Arab Navy engaged for the first time in naval battle with Israeli ships in the Latakia area.

[7] The Israeli Navy had five missile boats launched from the port of Haifa towards the main positions of the Syrian fleet off the coast of Latakia.

[10] On 29 August 1989, a Syrian missile boat sank the Maltese tanker Sunshield, which attempted to enter the prohibited zone.

In recent years, they have also acquired an unknown number of Sepal missiles, and their possession was not known until they appeared in modern combat tests of the Syrian Arab Army in late 2011.

[5] The Project-677 or Lada-class diesel submarine, whose export version is known as the Amur 1650, features a new anti-sonar coating for its hull, an extended cruising range, and advanced anti-ship and anti-submarine weaponry.

Shortly after the collapse of the Ba'athist regime, on December 9, 2024 the Israeli Air Force launched an attack on various assets of the Syrian Fleet.

Israel sought to destroy important naval assets to prevent their use by the incoming Syrian Government in the context of the 2024 Israeli invasion of Syria.

[5] Latakia is Syria's largest and most active port, as it has 23 berths, and it includes a section for the repair of military ships within its sectors, and some of the navy's fast missile boats dock in it.

According to the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence negotiations between the Russia and the new Syrian government over the Khmeimim and Tartus military bases are "almost certainly ongoing," but the UK MoD notes that Moscow is in a weaker bargaining position due several factors including sheltering the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

One decommissioned Syrian frigate was sunk by the Russian Air Force as a training target on 15 April 2018 off the coast of Syria.

[40] The following table shows the strength of the Syrian Arab Naval Forces according to the year since 1990, in addition to the deals to be concluded in this regard until 2015:[5]