The Naval Museum is a state-owned entity, with a national category, dependent on the Ministry of Defense with organic dependence on the Admiral Chief of the Navy General Staff and governed by its Royal Board of Trustees, whose honorary presidency corresponds to His Majesty King Don Juan Carlos.

The museum has been conceived as a living institution open to the general public, which in addition to the conservation, study, exhibition and increase of its funds, serves as an instrument of communication and education of the maritime history of Spain to safeguard its traditions and promote the national maritime awareness.

Its priority objectives are framed in the promotion of knowledge of the history of the Spanish Navy, shipbuilding, nautical science and its auxiliary sciences (cosmography, cartography and instruments), the history of maritime voyages and discoveries, underwater archeology and the maritime intangible heritage.

The Naval Museum, in addition to the Madrid headquarters, directs and coordinates a series of subsidiary museums: the naval museums of the Canary Islands, Cartagena, Ferrol and San Fernando, as well as the Torre del Oro maritime museum in Seville and the Don Álvaro Archive-Museum of Bazán in Viso del Marqués (Ciudad Real).