The British Defence Singapore Support Unit ( BDSSU ) is a British naval facility located in Sembawang , Singapore . A remnant of a larger naval base, known as HMNB Singapore , the facility provides fuel and other supplies to Royal Navy ships in the region, as well as those of other countries. It is the only permanent Royal Navy presence to remain at the former naval base, which is maintained by Naval Party 1022 under the auspices of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA).
35-515: The facility has its origins in the larger HMNB Singapore (also known as HMS Terror ), a naval base which was established by the United Kingdom during World War II as a cornerstone of its Singapore strategy . In 1942, the Battle of Singapore resulted in the base being taken over by Japan . However, after the surrender of Japan in 1945, the base was returned to British control. After World War II,
70-655: A Far East Fleet base. Today, it is a commercial dockyard but British military activity still exists at the British Defence Singapore Support Unit (BDSSU). Through the 19th century, the British Government relied on four Imperial fortress colonies as primary bases for the Royal Navy and British Army for control of the World's oceans. These were Bermuda and Halifax, Nova Scotia (military control of
105-534: A commercial dockyard (as Sembawang Shipyard, now part of Singapore Exchange - listed SembCorp Marine ). After the short term ANZUK arrangement was terminated (started in 1971 and ended in 1974), New Zealand Force South East Asia (NZFORSEA) was created with the HQ being sited at the Stores Basin area adjacent to the current Sembawang Naval Basin. NZFORSEA consisted of 1 Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment (RNZIR), which
140-796: A naval ' Imperial fortress ' in the broad region of Asia, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean. Instead, the British Empire relied on the squadron of the Bermuda based America and West Indies Station , utilising the Panama Canal after its 1914 completion, to patrol the western Atlantic and the eastern Pacific, while vessels based in Malta in the Mediterranean Sea could project naval and military force to
175-742: Is a Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessel of the Royal Navy . Named after the River Spey in Scotland , she is the eighth Royal Navy ship to be named Spey and is the fifth Batch 2 River-class vessel to commission and is forward deployed long-term to the Indo-Pacific region with her sister ship HMS Tamar . On 6 November 2013 it was announced that the Royal Navy had signed an Agreement in Principle to build three new offshore patrol vessels, based on
210-635: The Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA), NZFORSEA took over the Royal Navy married quarters and billets, while the Installations Auxiliary Police Force (IAPF) was formed, the small police force was staffed by Singaporeans but commanded by an NZ officer to provide security to the whole area. This security blanket covered the British, UK and Australian facilities and personnel. When NZFORSEA withdrew from Singapore in 1989, it
245-501: The Indian Navy in principle access to Sembawang Port and Indian patrol boats escorting American naval ships through the Straits of Malacca . Admiralty Floating Dock No.9 , a large floating dry dock , the third-largest in the world at the time of its construction, was located at the base. It was used by the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle for a refit in 1939. At the time, the dry dock
280-671: The Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan . Over 500 tonnes of equipment and stores were supplied to the ship in what the Royal Navy described as the "most ambitious storing that a Royal Navy ship has attempted to do within 24 hours" since the Falklands War in 1982. As a repair and logistics support facility, the BDSSU was underutilized by the Royal Navy until 2018, when the UK began a strategic return East of Suez. The consequent re-surge in activity saw
315-769: The Singapore Naval Base , Sembawang Naval Base and HMS Sembawang , was situated in Sembawang at the northern tip of Singapore and was both a Royal Navy shore establishment and a cornerstone of British defence policy (the Singapore strategy ) in the Far East between the World Wars . From 1921 to 1941 it was a China Station base, from 1941 to 1945 a repair facility for the Imperial Japanese Navy and from 1945 to 1958
350-670: The US 7th Fleet in its operations in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. The United States Coast Guard , Marine Inspection Detachment (MIDET) Singapore is also a tenant. Apart from the US naval presence, the United States Air Force has its administration, logistics and support component for the 497th Combat Training Squadron being based there, while the squadron's flight operations are based at Paya Lebar Air Base . Since 2002, Singapore has granted
385-690: The " Gibraltar of the East". The base was renamed from HMS Terror to HMS Sultan on 1 January 1940 to acknowledge the proximity of the nine sultanates on the Malay Peninsula . After the fall of Malaya on 31 January 1942, Singapore came within range of the artillery guns of the Twenty-Fifth Army of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), who were positioned in Johor within sight of the base. The IJA
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#1732844761389420-732: The Atlantic and its connected seas. This was despite the growing threats of the Pacific fleets of the Russian Empire and the United States during the 19th Century. After the Great War , the British Government devoted significant resources into building a naval base on Singapore Island , where the capital of the Straits Settlements was located, as a deterrent to the increasingly ambitious Japanese Empire with its growing fleet. Britain lacked
455-571: The Australian, British and New Zealand navies as well as those from other Commonwealth countries under the auspices of FPDA. As part of a 1990 agreement (concluded in 1992) between Singapore and the United States, American military forces (primarily naval and air force ) have been making use of Sembawang's base facilities. The Commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific has been headquartered in Sembawang since 1992, providing logistic support for
490-638: The Clyde on 28 October for the delivery voyage to Portsmouth. On 7 January 2021, HMS Spey was handed over to the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. In late spring 2021, Spey received "dazzle" camouflage in Falmouth in preparation for deploying to the Indo-Pacific region with sister ship Tamar . Spey was commissioned into the Royal Navy at her affiliated town, Invergordon on 18 June 2021. On 7 September, Spey and sister Tamar departed Portsmouth to be forward deployed to
525-621: The German surrender. With the surrender of Japan in August 1945, control of the naval base and Singapore was reverted to British and Commonwealth Forces in September 1945, when allied units of South East Asia Command under Lord Louis Mountbatten started to arrive in Singapore. In line with the Royal Navy's tradition of naming their respective naval base and dockyard, the accommodation barracks adjacent to
560-713: The Indian and western Pacific oceans via the Suez Canal , which had been completed in 1869. In light of the rising threat of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), this was no longer adequate. Originally announced in 1923, the construction of the base proceeded slowly at Sembawang until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. It was completed in 1938, at a staggering cost of £60 million – equivalent to £2½ billion in 2006. The base covered 21 square miles (54 km ) and had what
595-534: The Indo-Pacific region for a minimum of five years. On 21 January 2022, Spey was deployed to Tonga as relief aid due to the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunami . In March a survey by the ship revealed that Henderson Island - part of the Pitcairn chain in the south Pacific had been mislocated in a survey in 1937 by one mile (1.6 km). In 2023, Spey was deployed to Australia . In 2024 HMS Spey made her inaugural visit to India following in
630-796: The River-class design, at a fixed price of £348 million including spares and support. In August 2014, BAE Systems signed the contract to build the ships on the Clyde . The Ministry of Defence stated that the Batch 2 ships are capable of being used for constabulary duties such as "counter-terrorism, counter-piracy and anti-smuggling operations". According to BAE Systems, the vessels are designed to deploy globally, conducting anti-piracy, counter-terrorism and anti-smuggling tasks currently conducted by frigates and destroyers . A £287m order, for two further ships, Tamar and Spey , and support for all five Batch 2 ships,
665-569: The Singapore Armed Forces' Infantry Training Depot that served to provide a three-month-long basic military training (BMT) course to mostly national service recruits, and the premises continued the legacy of HMS Terror by being popularly referred to as "Terror Camp" . With the complete withdrawal of British forces from Singapore in 1971 , the Naval Base has since been handed over to the Singapore government , which in 1968 converted it into
700-720: The UK began evaluating options for a military base in the Far East in 2019. Singapore was among the options under consideration. After a period where the unit was led by a civilian from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Acting Commander James Bradshaw, formerly Commander of the Royal Navy Gibraltar Squadron, assumed command as Commander BDSSU in March 2017. Commander Paul Bastiaens arrived in Singapore in January 2018. In November 2020, Tim Hutchins became
735-488: The United Kingdom withdrew its forces from the East of Suez . ANZUK was replaced by the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA), which included both Malaysia and Singapore, in 1971. The BDSSU was one such facility maintained by the UK in order to support its FPDA commitments. In November 2013, the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious visited the facility and was equipped with humanitarian aid and supplies destined for
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#1732844761389770-450: The base became known as HMS Terror (from 1945 to 1971) in honour of HMS Terror , an Erebus -class monitor armed with twin 15-inch guns , which was based at one time in Singapore before the war. Since 1972, part of the compound is now occupied by the Republic of Singapore Navy 's Naval Diving Unit (NDU) . During the 1970s and 1980s, part of this former British naval base became
805-514: The facility after experiencing technical issues at sea. In May 2021, the Royal Navy announced that two River-class offshore patrol vessels , HMS Tamar and HMS Spey , would be permanently based in the Indo-Pacific region with the new Type 31 frigates joining them in future. The ships will use the BDSSU as their primary logistics hub. HMNB Singapore His Majesty's Naval Base, Singapore , also Her Majesty's Naval Base, Singapore ( HMNB Singapore ), alternatively known as
840-462: The facility supporting HMS Sutherland , HMS Albion , HMS Argyll and HMS Montrose within a 12-month period — the largest deployment of British warships to the region since the Korean War in the 1950s. During this period, the facility provided more fuel than all of the naval bases in the United Kingdom. As part of an initiative to re-engage with the world after Brexit ,
875-708: The latter was handed to the Canadian militia following Canadian Confederation in 1867, and naval control to the Royal Canadian Navy after 1905, along with Esquimalt Royal Naval Dockyard , which had been the main base of the Pacific Station ) in the North Atlantic, and Gibraltar and Malta . As it was presumed that the only navies that could challenge the Royal Navy were those of European powers, no base equivalent to an Imperial fortress had been constructed outside of
910-422: The naval base was gradually reduced in size after Singapore gained independence in 1965 and it was ultimately handed over to Singapore in 1968. The base was then largely converted into a commercial dockyard, known as Sembawang Shipyard Pte Ltd. However, some facilities were retained and maintained by ANZUK , an alliance between Australia , New Zealand and the United Kingdom to defend Singapore and Malaysia after
945-541: The unit prepared to support the 50th anniversary of Exercise Bersama Lima , a military exercise held by the FPDA. In July 2021, the Royal Navy's UK Carrier Strike Group 21 , led by aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth , visited Singapore on its debut operational deployment. At least one ship from the strike group, auxiliary RFA Tidespring , visited the BDSSU to resupply on fuel, food, stores and mail. Another ship, Type 45 destroyer HMS Diamond , also visited
980-502: The unit's commander, succeeding Commander Paul Bastiaens. At the time of his appointment, the unit comprised 33 personnel, consisting of UK service personnel and civilian contractors. An average of 120 vessels had also visited the unit over the past five years — primarily from the FPDA navies and the United States Navy — making it one of the busiest UK military-operated ports for frigate and destroyer movements. His appointment came as
1015-491: The war and was subjected to Allied air attacks to disable the dry dock in late 1944 and early 1945. Modern sources give the title "Captain-in-Charge" to the senior officer at Singapore Naval Base from 1921 to 1942, including flag officers . However, contemporary sources state that the official title wasn't granted until 1931, when Captain Birkett took on the role. Included: Included: HMS Spey (P234) HMS Spey
1050-541: Was announced on 8 December 2016. Batch 2 ships such as Spey include some 29 modifications and enhancements over the Amazonas -class corvette built by BAE Systems for the Brazilian Navy . Tamar and Spey have further modifications such as carbon dioxide reducing catalytic converters. Spey was formally named on 3 October 2019. She began contractor sea trials in September 2020, and after they were completed, left
1085-408: Was based at Dieppe Barracks near Yishun New Town , No. 141 Flight of Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), with its Bell UH-1D/H Hueys based at Sembawang Air Base and frequent deployments of Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) frigates. This was the last major foreign military presence based in Singapore. Total military strength at the time stood at 850 with some 700 dependents. Under the auspices of
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1120-552: Was described as having been floated from England to Singapore 10 years before. The graving dock was completed in February 1938 and was more than 300 m (980 ft) in length and was the largest dry dock in the world at the time. With the impending capture of Singapore by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1942, the dry dock gates were blown off and machinery destroyed. The dock was subsequently repaired and used throughout
1155-573: Was poised to capture Singapore within a fortnight . The base was subsequently captured, largely intact, by units of the advancing IJA and became the IJN No. 101 Repair Facility through to the end of the Second World War during which time it was used by all 3 Axis powers . It was used by Italian cargo-carrying submarines until the Italian Armistice, and by German cargo-carrying submarines until
1190-509: Was replaced by the smaller NZ Defence Support Unit, the South East Asia (NZDSU SEA), with the IAPF still providing security to other nations including the US facilities and personnel. The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) continues to maintain a small logistics base at Sembawang wharf to control most of the foreign military activities there, which includes repair, refuel and resupply for ships of
1225-559: Was then the largest dry dock in the world, the third-largest floating dock, and enough fuel tanks to support the entire Royal Navy for six months. It was defended by 15-inch naval guns stationed at Johore battery , Changi , and at Buona Vista Battery . Other important batteries of smaller calibre were located at Fort Siloso , Fort Canning , and Labrador . Air defence relied on the Royal Air Force (RAF) airfields at RAF Tengah and RAF Sembawang . Winston Churchill touted it as
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