page_title: Estonian Navy
section_title: Foundation
hierarchical_section_title: Estonian Navy / History / Interwar period / Foundation
caption_attribution_description: Estonian submarines Kalev and Lembit
context_page_description: The Estonian Navy are the unified naval forces among the Estonia Defence Forces.
  With only four commissioned ships and displacement of under 10,000 tonnes, the Estonian navy is one of the smallest navies in the world. Ship prefix is EML. The Estonian Navy has been reduced severely since the second half of the decade mainly due to insufficient maintenance, lack of funding and thereby training of personnel and timely replacement of equipment. Another possible setback could be attributed to Estonia's domestic lack of maritime defence policy strategy as the current navy neither operates a single traditional warship that could perform defensive or offensive operations nor coastal defense capabilities and maritime landing operations along its long and island rich territorial waters. The Estonian Navy has participated numerous times in NATO's naval joint-exercises.
context_section_description: The Merevägi was founded on November 21, 1918. The foundation and development of the Estonian Navy rely greatly on the Royal Navy which operated in the Gulf of Finland as an ally to Estonia during the Estonian War of Independence. The first Estonian navy warships were the destroyers Lennuk and Wambola and were gifts from the UK's Royal Navy after they had been captured from the Russian Baltic Fleet in 1919.
caption: The Estonian submarines Kalev and Lembit during the interwar period
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