Congress disbanded the Continental navy at the end of the Revolutionary War and the United States functioned without a navy until 1794. Without armed ships or the protection of Great Britain, North African pirates frequently victimized American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean Sea during this time.

Naval operations can be broadly divided between riverine and littoral applications (brown-water navy), open-ocean applications (blue-water navy), and something in between (green-water navy), although these distinctions are more about strategic scope than tactical or operational division.

United States Navy – In 1992, the U.S. Navy officially adopted "Honor, Courage, Commitment" as its standing motto.

With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the U.S. Navy is the third largest of the United States military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 299 deployable combat vessels and about 4,012 operational aircraft as of July 18, 2023. Arlington County, Virginia, U.S.