island of Sazan, in the mouth of the
bay about ten miles west of Vlore. This was the site of the Soviet
submarine base before 1961. The Durres Sea Defense Brigade controls the
units stationed at Durres and those that are locked within Lake Scutari.
The Buene River is navigable between Lake Scutari and the Adriatic, but
only the smallest of the ships in the lake can pass beneath the Shkoder
city bridges.

The officially stated mission of the naval forces is to provide for the
military security of coastal waters; to prevent smuggling; to prevent
submarines from approaching the coast or harbors; to lay and sweep
mines; to intercept enemy forces; to escort convoys along the coastline;
and, together with police patrol boats, to control entries to, or exits
from, the country. Original Soviet support for the navy was provided in
order to secure a submarine and minelaying base with access to the
Mediterranean Sea.

Forces available are considerably weaker than those of any one of the
potential enemies and, with the exception of Vlore, Albanian harbors
provide little natural protection. It is therefore probable that the
leadership thinks in terms of peacetime shore patrols and would hope, in
wartime, to use what units they were able to preserve to prevent totally
uninhibited use of the seas adjacent to the country.

In mid-1970 naval ships included three or four submarines, eight
minesweepers, twelve motor torpedo boats, one or two oilers, and perhaps
twenty-five or thirty more ships, about one-half of which were classed
as coastal patrol and one-half as auxiliary types. The submarines are
obsolescent medium-range boats. Two of the minesweepers are oceangoing
vessels; the other six can sweep harbors or inshore seas only. Most of
the miscellaneous vessels were formerly Italian, of World War II and
earlier vintages. Albanian sources claim that a dozen newer torpedo
boats have been supplied by the Chinese, six of them hydrofoil types.

Naval personnel number approximately 3,000. Since many of the ships put
to sea infrequently, many of the navy men do part-time fishing or
agricultural work. Familiarity with ships helps a new conscript get a
naval assignment, and many of those drafted are from the vicinities of
Vlore or Durres and may serve their three years being only rarely out of
sight of home. Their morale is only fair.

Officers are required to have a general education that includes at
least some university credits. They re