The Royal Lao Navy (; – MRL) was the naval component of the Royal Lao Armed Forces (FAR), the official military of the Royal Lao Government and the Kingdom of Laos during the Laotian Civil War between 1960 and 1975.
History
The Laotian Navy () was first formed on August 1, 1952, as the "naval" wing of the Laotian National Army (ANL) and designated the Lao River Squadron ( – EFL) or River Squadron () for short.Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), p. 178. An exclusively brown-water force since Laos is a landlocked country, the new ANL River Squadron was provided at the time with eleven ex-French Navy FOM escort crafts, which had seen service during the First Indochina War, ten Mytho-class flat-bottomed wooden boats and six outboard canoes for light transportation duties.Conboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974 (2022b), p. 64.Grandolini & Hooton, Out-Country War Volume 1: The Secret War Begins, Laos 1954-1960 (2025), p. 38. Initially headquartered at the French Air Force's Wattay Airbase near Vientiane, with small elements stationed in Savannakhet and Pakse, EFL strength in 1952 stood at just 80 all-ranks, including three French naval officers, three ANL officers, five French senior Petty Officers and 18 ANL Non-commissioned officers (NCOs). Most of the Laotian EFL junior ranks were immediately sent for four months of riverine training in Saigon, South Vietnam, manned by French Officers and senior Petty Officers seconded from the naval forces component of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps (CEFEO).
Beginning that same year, a number of Laotian naval officer candidate students ( – EOMs) were sent to France, in order to attend advanced Officer and Petty Officer courses at the French Naval Academy in Brest; every year, two or three Officers and three Petty Officers went to France for specialist courses, and also received on-the-job training with the Rhine Flotilla ().Sananikone, The Royal Lao Army and U.S. Army advice and support (1981), p. 18.Conboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974 (2022b), pp. 65; 67. Other Laotian naval personnel went to South Vietnam, where they attended training courses offered by the Republic of Vietnam Navy at their Training Centers located in Saigon, Nha Trang, and Cam Ranh Bay; further on-the-job training was provided to Laotian recruits by the Royal Thai Navy in Thailand.Conboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974 (2022b), p. 67. Additional technical assistance was provided by the Americans through the Programs Evaluation Office (PEO) since 1959, in the form of marine mechanics courses conducted by a PEO instructor team led by a U.S. Navy Reserve Officer at the flotilla's repair shop in Chinaimo Naval Base, whilst two contracted Filipino technicians from the Eastern Construction Company (abbreviated as ECCOIL) were assigned to the ANL River Flotilla headquarters to train Laotian sailors.Conboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974 (2022b), p. 65.
In July 1959, the ANL River Flotilla, whose strength peaked at 200 sailors and ratings operating a surface fleet of 32 small patrol boats and landing crafts, was re-designated Laotian Navy and became an independent branch, now part of the newly created Laotian Armed Forces ( – FAL), renamed Royal Lao Armed Forces ( – FAR) in September 1961.Conboy and Greer, War in Laos 1954-1975 (1994), pp. 5-7; 13.Grandolini & Hooton, Out-Country War Volume 1: The Secret War Begins, Laos 1954-1960 (2025), p. 36.
The MRL in the Laotian civil war Early operations 1960–1970
Like the ANL, the fledgling Laotian Navy soon found itself involved in the political turmoil that engulfed the Kingdom of Laos in the early 1960s. During Major general Phoumi Nosavan November 1960 counter-coup against Captain Kong Le's rebel Neutralist airborne units, four pro-Neutralist Laotian Navy river gunboats blocked the Mekong river at Ban Sot in an effort to halt the advance northwards from Savannakhet of Maj. Gen. Nosavan's counter-coup troops towards Vientiane. Other Laotian Naval units however, supported the coup by transporting up the Mekong in landing crafts from Savannakhet Lieutenant colonel Siho Lamphouthacoul and his Directorate of National Coordination (DNC) elite para-commando regiment, the 1st Special Mobile Group ( – GMS 1), on 21 November to join the Battle of Vientiane.Conboy and Morrison, Shadow War: The CIA's Secret War in Laos (1995), p. 37.Grandolini & Hooton, Out-Country War Volume 1: The Secret War Begins, Laos 1954-1960 (2025), p. 72.
In 1970, a US-funded Royal Lao Navy Jungle School (MRL École de la Jungle) was established at Thakhek in Khammouane Province, which offered courses for MRL students in basic infantry amphibious tactics and river patrolling techniques. Graduation exercises had the Laotian naval cadets assault beaches from landing craft, though these tactics were never used in actual operations.Conboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974 (2022b), pp. 67-68.
Final operations 1971–1975 Besides training programs and technical assistance, what no country agreed to provide was new hardware. A 1971 US Navy assessment of the MRL flotilla included a recommendation that four PBR Mk 1/2 "Bibber" river patrol boats be handed over, but these were never forthcoming. Meantime, attrition was taking a heavy toll. By 1970, all the Privat gunboats had been effectively decommissioned and most of the landing crafts were down for repairs.
Rather than combat operations, the MRL more often found itself saddled with ceremonial duties and VIP protection. Taking a page from the Royal Thai Navy, the MRL was tasked with augmenting the Laotian Royal Guard; when the Laotian King Savang Vatthana was in residence at his Palace in Luang Prabang, eight MRL sailors on guard duty were split among the Palace's four entrances. During the King's official trips around the country, 31 guards from the MRL were among his bodyguard detail.
In November 1972, the MRL carried out its third and final combat operation, when it was called to participate in the defence of the river town of Thakhek, the capital of Khammouane province in the Military Region 3 (MR 3), threatened by a North Vietnamese Army (NVA) ground offensive. Several FOM 11 gunboats were dispatched up the Mekong from Savannakhet and promptly arrived near Thakhek, providing heavy-weapons fire in support of a combined RLA counter-offensive that successfully repulsed the North Vietnamese assaults.Conboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974 (2022b), p. 46.
There were no further combat assignments, and for the remaining three years of the War, the MRL's flotilla was largely inactive apart from occasionally escorting supply convoys. This situation lasted until August 23, 1975, when the Pathet Lao entered Vientiane and dissolved the FAR. On 2 November that year the MRL was disbanded, with Captain Sinthanavong Kindavong being forced to resign and sent to a re-education camp in Sam Neua. All former MRL assets – 36 boats in total, including the handful of vessels that were still operable – were seized by the Pathet Lao government and repurposed to equip the new Lao People's Navy (LPN).
Structure The MRL, along with the Royal Lao Air Force (RLAF) and the Royal Lao Army (RLA), was subordinated to the Ministry of Defence in Vientiane; its administrative headquarters was allocated at Camp Chinaimo, a major FAR military base in the southern outskirts of the Laotian capital,Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), pp. 53–54. whose facilities also housed the main repair yard, the Fleet Command and the Independent Directorate of Laotian River Transports ( – RATFL), which handled military logistics and monotorized commercial shipping along the Mekong river.
Fleet organization By April 1975, Royal Lao Navy strength peaked at 500 Ratings and enlisted men led by Captain Sinthanavong Kindavong,Sananikone, The Royal Lao Army and U.S. Army advice and support (1981), p. 172, Chart 6. who manned a single river flotilla totalling 42 light vessels, divided since the mid-1950s into a patrol squadron ( – EFHM) and a squadron-sized transport section ( – STFL). Throughout its existence, the MRL received technical and training assistance mainly from France and the United States, who also provided river patrol boats and transportation craft to equip their patrol and transport squadrons respectively. Most of the Laotian Navy river assets were stationed permanently at Chinaimo Naval Base, with secondary riverine stations set along the Mekong at Luang Prabang, Pak Lay, Thakhek, Savannakhet, Paksé and Khong Island. Besides its tiny surface fleet, the MRL was also unique in its genre for not maintaining a permanent Naval Infantry branch or even specialist combat diver/Marine Commando units.
List of Laotian Navy commanders
Commander Soulignet Chounramany (1954–1957) Commander Mok Kouvongsavanh (1960–1964) Captain Sinthanavong Kindavong (1957–1960; 1964–1975)
Deputy Laotian Navy commanders Lieutenant Commander Souk DaryConboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974 (2022b), p. 68.
Junior Laotian Navy commanders Lieutenant Sorasak Chounramany – head of the MRL Jungle School.Conboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974 (2022b), p. 66.
Equipment Escort and combat patrol craft Nine Wizard-class river gunboats (a.k.a. Privats)Conboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974 (2022b), pp. 64-65.Grandolini & Hooton, Out-Country War Volume 1: The Secret War Begins, Laos 1954-1960 (2025), p. 38. Eight FOM 11 patrol and escort boats11m patrol boats – Site navypedia.orgGrandolini & Hooton, Out-Country War Volume 1: The Secret War Begins, Laos 1954-1960 (2025), p. 38. Three FOM 8 patrol and escort boatsGrandolini & Hooton, Out-Country War Volume 1: The Secret War Begins, Laos 1954-1960 (2025), p. 38.
Troop transport, amphibious assault, and logistical operations craft Five Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP)Conboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974 (2022b), p. 67.Grandolini & Hooton, Out-Country War Volume 1: The Secret War Begins, Laos 1954-1960 (2025), p. 36. Seven Landing Craft Mechanized Mk 6 Mod 1-LCM (6) Landing Craft Utility (LCU)LCM(6) type landing craft – Site navypedia.orgConboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961-1974 (2022b), pp. 64-65; 67.Grandolini & Hooton, Out-Country War Volume 1: The Secret War Begins, Laos 1954-1960 (2025), p. 36.
MRL uniforms and insignia The Laotian Navy owed its origin and traditions to the French Far East Naval Forces ( – FMEO) of the First Indochina War, and even after the United States took the role as the main foreign sponsor for the Royal Laotian Armed Forces at the beginning of the 1960s, French military influence was still perceptible in their uniforms and insignia.
Service dress and field uniforms Upon the formation of the MRL at the early 1950s, Laotian naval senior officers and petty officers adopted a unique Beige-Khaki service uniform of French pattern, which consisted of a double-breasted reefer jacket () with open collar and lapels, and featuring two internal skirt pockets with external flaps. The jacket had a double row of six gilt metal anchor motif buttons, and was worn with a white shirt and black tie, completed with matching Beige-Khaki trousers. Enlisted personnel also received a French-style Beige-Khaki service uniform or Sailor suit, consisting of a Navy jumper (or pullover shirt) and trousers flared as "bell bottoms". A French-style Navy blue striped long sleeve T-shirt was worn under the jumper.