Founded on August 13, 1980, as the Sandinista Navy, it consisted of a few old
patrol boats in the early 1980s. The Sandinistas acquired eight
Soviet 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 Korean 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 attacks and to deter
CIA-run operations such as the destruction of diesel storage facilities at
Corinto in 1983 and the mining of
Nicaraguan harbors in 1984. The
Sandinista navy (—MGS), which had reached a peak strength of 3,000 personnel in 1990, suffered a sweeping reduction to 800 by 1993. 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 US$20 million to US$65 million. The vessels used had previously been employed by
Jamaica -
HMJS Cornwall and
HMJS Surrey. ==Organization==