What Ships and Submarines Does Morocco’s Navy Operate?

Morocco’s navy has no submarines, no destroyers and only one modern frigate – but a new Spanish-built patrol vessel delivered in September 2026 and a long-running submarine search show where the Royal Moroccan Navy is trying to go next.

The short answer: the Royal Moroccan Navy’s blue-water strength rests on a single French FREMM frigate, Mohammed VI, backed by three Dutch-built Sigma-class frigates and two older Floreal-class frigates – six principal surface combatants in total. A large coastal and patrol flotilla covers Morocco’s roughly 1,835km of Atlantic and Mediterranean coastline, and in September 2026 that flotilla gained its first new hull in over a decade, the Navantia-built offshore patrol vessel Moulay Hassan. Submarines remain the one capability gap Rabat has talked about closing for years without yet signing a contract.

What does Morocco’s surface fleet look like?

The Royal Moroccan Navy’s most capable ship is Mohammed VI, a French-built FREMM multi-mission frigate delivered by DCNS (now Naval Group) in January 2014. At about 142 metres and 6,000 tonnes, armed with 16 Aster 15 surface-to-air missiles, eight MM40 Exocet Block 3 anti-ship missiles, a 76mm Super Rapid gun and MU90 torpedoes, it gives Morocco a genuine anti-submarine and local air-defence capability, though the Aster 15 fit covers only self-protection and point defence rather than the wide-area air cover that an Aster 30-armed ship would provide. In July 2026 Mohammed VI sailed to New York to take part in the US Navy’s International Naval Review 250, one of only two African warships invited alongside a Senegalese patrol vessel, underlining how far Morocco’s navy has moved from a purely coastal force.

Below the FREMM sit three Dutch-designed Sigma-class frigates – Tarik Ben Ziyad, Sultan Moulay Ismail and Allal Ben Abdellah – built by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding under a roughly $1.2 billion contract and commissioned between 2011 and 2012, armed with the same Exocet/Oto Melara 76mm combination. Two older French-built Floreal-class surveillance frigates round out the principal combatants. None of the three classes has had a publicly reported combat-system upgrade in the past year; a 2022 Hespress report that Naval Group had taken on maintenance of two FAR frigates at a Naval Group site gives the clearest public sign of through-life support, but did not name the ships or disclose a scope.

Morocco’s first Spanish-built warship in four decades

The fleet’s newest addition is the offshore patrol vessel Moulay Hassan, an 87-metre, roughly 2,020-tonne Avante 1800-type ship built by Navantia at its San Fernando yard in Cadiz. The contract was signed in January 2021, construction began in July 2023, the keel was laid in September 2024, the ship was launched on 27 May 2025, and Navantia formally handed it over on 17 September 2026 after sea trials in the Bay of Cadiz – Morocco’s first warship built in a Spanish yard in more than 40 years, according to Moroccan press coverage of the delivery. It reaches about 24 knots, has a range of roughly 4,000 nautical miles at 15 knots, can carry a medium helicopter, and was delivered unarmed: Morocco is responsible for fitting weapons and sensors to its own requirements, which Spanish defence press has suggested could draw on the Thales Nederland combat system already used on the Sigma frigates, though that remains a prediction rather than a confirmed fit. The roughly €130 million deal was financed in part through a €95 million loan from Banco Santander, and the contract includes spares, documentation and crew training in Spain. Morocco holds an option for one or two further Avante 1800s.

Why doesn’t Morocco have a submarine yet?

Morocco has been shopping for its first submarine since at least 2021, when French press first reported Naval Group in discussion with the Royal Armed Forces over a Scorpene-class deal. Five years on, no contract has been confirmed. French (Naval Group Scorpene), German (TKMS Type 212/HDW) and Russian (Amur-class) designs have all been named as contenders at various points, with reporting diverging on whether Rabat wants two or three boats. South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean entered the picture after a Moroccan delegation visited the company’s Geoje shipyard in September 2025, and a Mirae Asset Securities sector report dated 19 November 2025 that resurfaced on social media in April 2026 listed Morocco among potential markets for the KSS-III submarine, with three units pencilled in for 2027. Moroccan fact-checking site Ledesk.ma cautioned that the leaked report proves only that Morocco appears on a broker’s prospect list, not that Rabat has chosen the Korean design or issued a firm offer; French-language coverage that presented it as a structured Scorpene-versus-KSS-III contest overstated what the document showed. Germany’s TKMS separately told Moroccan outlet Medias24 in July 2026 that it considers Morocco a market of “strategic interest,” again without confirming active negotiations. Taken together, the public record shows a genuine, long-standing Moroccan interest in acquiring a submarine fleet and at least four possible suppliers circling the opportunity, but no tender, contract or delivery date that DefenceMENA can confirm as of October 2026.

What is changing?

The Moulay Hassan handover is the most concrete naval development of the past year and the clearest sign that Morocco is investing in its coastal and EEZ-patrol layer rather than only its blue-water frigates. A second Avante 1800, or an exercise of Morocco’s option for a third, would extend that programme; none has been announced yet. The submarine file continues to generate reporting more often than confirmed facts, and DefenceMENA will update this page once an actual tender or contract is reported by Morocco’s own Ministry of Defence, Naval Group, TKMS or Hanwha Ocean rather than by sector analysts or leaked slide decks. Mohammed VI’s participation in the US Navy’s Naval Review 250 and the February-to-April 2026 French ORION 26 exercise cycle both point to a navy increasingly used for international signalling alongside its home-water missions.

How does Morocco’s navy compare in Africa?

Morocco’s six principal surface combatants put it ahead of most of its North and West African neighbours in blue-water capability, but behind Egypt, which operates two Mistral-class helicopter carriers, four FREMM-type frigates and a growing submarine force. The gap that stands out most is against Algeria, whose navy already operates six Russian Kilo-class submarines, a capability Morocco has openly said it is “exploring options” to match but has not yet acquired; see DefenceMENA’s Morocco vs Algeria military comparison for the wider picture. Against Sub-Saharan navies, Morocco’s fleet is more capable on paper, but most African navies in that category rely on patrol and coastal craft rather than frigates, making like-for-like comparison difficult.

A note on the numbers

Morocco’s Ministry of Defence and Royal Armed Forces do not publish a detailed naval order of battle, so the figures above combine open-source naval reference sites (seaforces.org, naval-technology.com), manufacturer and shipyard statements from Navantia and Damen, Moroccan and Spanish press coverage of the Moulay Hassan delivery, and Global Firepower’s composite patrol-craft count, which is used here only as an indicative total and never as a confirmed inventory figure. Submarine reporting is treated with particular caution: where a source describes talks, options or a sector analyst’s prospect list rather than a signed contract, that distinction is kept in the text rather than rounded up to “acquired” or “ordered.” This page draws extensively on data verified for DefenceMENA’s main Morocco military profile and updates it with developments from the past twelve months.

Sources

• Hespress Français – Marine royale : le Maroc réceptionne la patrouilleur Moulay Hassan (September 2026)
• Forbes España / Nautik Magazine – Navantia delivers the Moulay Hassan I to Morocco (September 2026)
• GlobalMilitary.net – Moulay Hassan handover details and timeline
• Army Recognition – Moroccan FREMM frigate joins US Naval Review 250 in New York (July 2026)
• Hespress Français – La Marine royale étudierait l’acquisition de trois sous-marins (2026)
• Ledesk.ma – Sous-marins coréens pour le Maroc : ce que dit vraiment le rapport Mirae Asset Securities
• Bladi.net – Le Maroc se prépare-t-il à entrer dans l’ère des sous-marins ?
• Hespress Français – Sous-marins pour la Marine royale : les options françaises, allemandes et russes à l’étude
• Naval Technology – Royal Moroccan Navy commissions third Sigma-class frigate
• DefenceMENA – What Does Morocco’s Military Arsenal Look Like in 2026?
• DefenceMENA – How Morocco and Algeria Compare Militarily in 2026