The Largest Naval Bases in the World, Ranked

The largest naval base in the world is Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. As of September 2026 it hosts 42 Navy warships, 16 submarines and 16 Military Sealift Command vessels, 74 hulls in all, plus 23 aviation commands.

We rank the top 10 by the size of the fleet each base supports, the thing that makes a naval base a naval base. Only US bases publish exact ship counts, so for the others we use official fleet shares and satellite analysis, and say which in each entry.

The list is really a map of the world’s big navies. Five of the top 10 are American, two are Chinese, and the other three are British and French. For the fleets themselves, see our ranking of the largest navies in the world.

1. Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia

The Navy calls Norfolk “the largest naval complex in the world,” home to its largest concentration of naval forces. Stars and Stripes counted 42 warships, 16 submarines, 16 Military Sealift Command vessels and 23 aviation commands there in September 2026.

It is also a carrier home port. USS Nimitz moved there in July 2026 to train new naval aviators before it retires in 2027, one of the 11 US Navy aircraft carriers.

The Navy bought the land in 1917, right after the US entered World War I, on the old grounds of the 1907 Jamestown Exposition. By Armistice Day in 1918, 34,000 enlisted men were based there.

Its port operations team handles 1,500 to 2,500 ship movements a year. A 2025 study by India’s National Maritime Foundation puts Norfolk’s wharfage at 11 miles (18 km), well ahead of China’s northern carrier base at Yuchi.

2. Naval Base San Diego, California

San Diego is the home port of the Pacific Fleet’s surface navy, with 60 US Navy ships and two auxiliary vessels, including the hospital ship USNS Mercy. It covers more than 1,600 acres of land and 326 acres of water on San Diego Bay.

More than 35,000 military, civilian and contract staff work there. It was founded in 1922 as a destroyer base, and in World War II it repaired or overhauled more than 5,117 ships.

San Diego’s aircraft carriers are not actually based here. They sit across the bay at Naval Air Station North Island, a separate installation, which is why the carrier count does not lift this base above Norfolk. Our guide to the largest military bases in the US covers the American side in more depth.

3. Toulon, France

Toulon holds nearly 70% of the French Navy’s fleet, according to the Navy’s own figures reported in 2023. That includes the carrier Charles de Gaulle, the Mistral-class amphibious ships and France’s attack submarines.

It is the leading military port in both France and the Mediterranean. Some 16,000 sailors and 8,000 civilians are assigned there, and up to 26,000 people pass through the base each day.

The base covers 290 hectares (717 acres), with 12 basins and 7.5 miles (12 km) of quays. It is now being rebuilt for the next French carrier, due by 2035, which needs a new dry dock 370 meters (1,214 feet) long.

4. Yulin Naval Base, Hainan, China

Yulin, near Sanya on the southern tip of Hainan island, faces the South China Sea. Its infrastructure was valued at more than $18 billion in 2022, rivaling Pearl Harbor–Hickam, according to a Long Term Strategy Group analysis published by the Washington Post.

It houses China’s only ballistic-missile submarine base, with a cave built into the hillside to hide the boats. Defense News reported in 2022 that six Type 094 missile submarines were based there, three of them visible on satellite images, and a carrier pier that lets the Shandong call Yulin home.

China’s newest carrier, the Fujian, was commissioned at Sanya on November 5, 2025, with the Shandong alongside. Imagery from July 2025 showed at least seven new piers under construction, part of the buildup behind China’s plan for more carriers.

5. Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, Hawaii

Pearl Harbor is home to 8 ships, 15 submarines and 7 fixed-wing squadrons, plus more than 270 tenant commands. The whole joint base supports a population of more than 107,000.

By land it is the biggest base on this list that publishes a figure. The Navy side alone covers more than 14,000 acres across three sites, and it merged with Hickam Air Force Base in 2010.

It is the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet. After the 1941 attack, 19 of the 21 ships damaged or sunk were salvaged, and tour boats still carry nearly 2 million visitors a year to the USS Arizona Memorial.

6. HMNB Portsmouth, United Kingdom

Portsmouth is home to almost two-thirds of the Royal Navy’s surface ships, including both aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. Its Type 45 destroyers are based here too.

Its naval history starts in 1194, when Richard I ordered the first dock built there, and Henry VII added the first recorded dry dock in the world in 1495. To make room for the carriers, the Ministry of Defence dredged about 3.2 million cubic meters of seabed and turned up more than 20,000 archaeological finds.

Portsmouth is getting £3.9 billion of a £26 billion, ten-year rebuild of Britain’s three naval bases, announced in July 2026.

7. Yuchi Naval Base, Qingdao, China

Yuchi, in Guzhen Bay about 31 miles (50 km) southwest of Qingdao, is the main base of China’s Northern Theater Navy. It has been home to China’s first carrier, the Liaoning, since soon after its 2012 commissioning.

Its carrier jetty, completed as Pier 5, is 1,800 feet (550 m) long and 394 feet (120 m) wide. In December 2025, satellite images showed the Liaoning and the Fujian docked there together.

It still has far less berthing than Norfolk, but, as India’s National Maritime Foundation put it in 2025, “Yuchi, unlike Norfolk, is still growing rapidly.” Up to four new piers were under construction that year.

8. Naval Station Mayport, Florida

Mayport, near Jacksonville, is home to 20 Navy ships and three helicopter squadrons across 3,409 acres. Its harbor can hold 34 ships, and it has an 8,000-foot runway.

More than 11,000 people work on the station each day. It was an aircraft carrier home port from 1952 until USS John F. Kennedy left in 2007, and it has had none since.

9. Naval Base Kitsap, Washington

Kitsap, on Puget Sound, spans more than 12,000 acres and employs about 33,800 military and civilian staff plus 7,500 contractors. The Navy calls it its most complex multi-mission installation.

Its Bangor side is the Pacific home of America’s nuclear deterrent: eight ballistic-missile submarines, two guided-missile submarines and four attack submarines. Its Bremerton side is home to the carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

Kitsap ranks below Mayport on ship count, but it could climb. In June 2026 the Navy’s top admiral said USS Abraham Lincoln would likely move its home port to Bremerton.

10. HMNB Devonport, United Kingdom

The Royal Navy calls Devonport, in Plymouth, “the biggest naval base in Western Europe.” It covers more than 650 acres, with 4 miles of waterfront, 25 tidal berths and docks numbered up to 15.

It is home to most of the Royal Navy’s frigates and is the only UK site that can deep-maintain and defuel nuclear submarines. The Navy has used it since 1691.

Devonport is set to get £7.1 billion of the UK’s £26 billion naval base program. It ranks 10th because Toulon and Portsmouth host bigger fleets, even though Devonport has more than twice as much land as Portsmouth.

The other big bases people ask about

Yokosuka, Japan, is the largest US naval base overseas and the headquarters of the 7th Fleet. The Navy’s figure of 60 to 70 ships belongs to that fleet, not the base, and its current carrier is USS George Washington, which returned in November 2024.

Severomorsk, Russia, is the headquarters of the Northern Fleet, the largest of Russia’s four fleets, according to Norwegian intelligence. Its missile submarines are based at Gadzhiyevo, though, and Russia publishes no ship counts.

Sevastopol, Crimea, has hosted the Black Sea Fleet since 1783. After Ukrainian missile and drone strikes, Russia shifted much of the fleet’s operations to Novorossiysk from 2023, according to UK defence intelligence, though landing ships were still being hit at Sevastopol in April 2026.

Karwar, India, is billed as the future largest naval base east of the Suez Canal. It covers about 11,200 acres, its current phase will berth 32 ships and submarines, and a later phase aims for 50 frontline warships.

Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, is a US Navy support facility on British territory. The UK’s 2025 deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and lease the base back was on hold as of September 2026.

Largest by other measures

By land, the Navy’s biggest property is not a fleet base at all. Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California covers more than 1.1 million acres, larger than Rhode Island, and is used for weapons testing.

Today, nothing matches Norfolk for the size of the fleet it serves. China’s bases are the ones still growing quickly, but Yuchi’s berthing remains well short of Norfolk’s.