Modern naval battle counts depend on the definition

How many naval battles have occurred since 2000?

Not many under a conventional definition, although clashes with pirates and other gray-zone or police actions complicate the count.

An eighteenth-century observer might readily call a fight between a warship and pirates a battle. Modern usage often withholds that label when the pirate craft is comprehensively outgunned. Many post-2000 naval actions therefore fall into policing or gray-zone categories rather than conventional battle. The answer is less a numerical total than a warning that definitions determine what enters the count.