After reading about the sinking of the Russian ship Moskva in the Caspian Sea, a lake by any other name, I had to wonder how many countries have a military presence on inland bodies of water.
I can’t imagine the US Navy patrols Lake Superior, but maybe I’m wrong. It’s pretty big; and of course there’s need to keep tabs on the comings and goings between the US and Canada, but I can’t see battleships as part of it. I’m sure Customs agencies have boats- is the Coast Guard involved?
What about the Black Sea, Lake Victoria, Lake Titicaca, maybe other freshwater lakes that have shores in different countries? What kind of boats and firepower do they pack? Also, do some landlocked countries have navies? I can imagine some don’t actually nav and exist for reasons of national pride, because everyone likes snappy uniforms.
I could look this stuff up but it’s more fun to ask here.
It wasn’t the Caspian Sea, it was the Black Sea, which is connected to the Mediterranean (and thus the Atlantic Ocean).
As for the rest of the question, the US Coast Guard patrols large inland bodies of water, including the Great Lakes. Other countries’ navies and auxiliaries are responsible for their own inland waterways, and may be called Coast Guard, Navy, Naval Police, or many other names depending on the country.
The US Navy does operate on the Great Lakes to some degree and in the past to a major degree. Our largest training base is actually called Great Lakes. The US Navy ended non-training operations about 100 years ago when the Navy turned it over the Coast Guard.
If a large lake was a border between two nations less friendly then the US & Canada, I would expect Naval units.
For what it is worth, in the African Queen the Germans had a few navy ships on a fictional lake. But I believe C.S. Forester based this on the fact the Germans did have some small Navy Ships on large lakes in Africa in WWI. Here we go:
The US Coast Guard has the standard maritime border enforcement role, which relieves the Navy of that function in peacetime.
Apparently, one major remaining US Navy nautical operation in the Great Lakes is the acceptance trials of Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships, which are built in and launched from the Fincantieri Marinette shipyard at Marinette, Wisconsin.
I like that - a submarine base in Idaho, for “testing purposes”.
The Navy’s Acoustic Research Detachment (ARD) at Bayview, Idaho, which is some 375 miles from the ocean, is where new submarine and surface ship shapes and subsystems are tested in a sub-scale environment that closely mimics the ocean.
What about submarine sandwiches? Does the Navy test those too?
The Bolivian Navy: Because look out Chile, we just might take back our coastline that you took from us in 1887. (We kid, but they do look pretty badass.)
You are right, but despite its connection to the Atlantic I still say it’s a lake - but it’s huge, and Russia being Russia I certainly understand why they want to maintain an intimidating presence there. We in the US never had to worry much about the friendly folks to our north, even if Tim Hortons is reportedly looking to invade (don’t try it, Tim! We have Popeyes!)
The Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817 reduced the number of US and British naval vessels on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain to one or two vessels per country per lake following the conclusion of the War of 1812.