image creditIt might seem odd that nations with no access to the ocean would maintain naval forces, but many do. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, for example, keep many naval vessels on the enormous Caspian Sea. Switzerland and Burundi have armed patrol boats on their border lakes.
These forces, however, are not separate military entities, but integrated into the other armed forces. What makes these nations unique is that they maintain separate military organizations identified as navies, but these forces have access only to inland rivers and lakes.
