Changi Airbase (West)

Changi Air Base (CAB) Pangkalan Udara Changi 樟宜空军基地 (Zhāngyí Kōngjūn Jīdì) சாங்கி வான்படைத் தளம் (Cāṅki Vāṉpaṭait Taḷam)
Changi Air Base Badge
IATA: SIN ICAO: WSSS
Summary
Airport type	Military airbase
Owner	Ministry of Defence (Singapore)
Operator	Republic of Singapore Air Force
Location	Changi, Singapore
Elevation AMSL	7 m / 22 ft
Coordinates	01°22′34.53″N 103°58′59.46″E / 1.3762583°N 103.9831833°E / 1.3762583; 103.9831833
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 02L/20R 4,000 13,123 Concrete 02C/20C 4,000 13,123 Concrete

External image

1966 aerial view of RAF Station Changi

Changi Air Base (ICAO: WSSS) or Changi Air Base (West) (Changi West Complex), formerly RAF Changi, is an airfield military airbase of the Republic of Singapore Air Force located at Changi, in the eastern tip of Singapore. Sited at two locations to the east and west of Singapore Changi Airport, it co-shares runway facilities with the civilian airport and currently occupies a third runway slated for future expansion for civilian use by Singapore Changi Airport. Together, the two airfields house 121 Squadron, 112 Squadron, No 145 Squadron, the Field Defence Squadron, the Air Logistics Squadron and the Airfield Maintenance Squadron. The air base badge carries the motto: "Together in Excellence".

First completed as a British artillery camp in 1940, it was used together with the nearby Changi Prison for housing many of the Allied prisoners-of-war (POWs) after the fall of Singapore in 1942. The construction of the airfield was initiated by the occupying Imperial Japanese forces using those same Allied POWs as forced labourers, building two unpaved landing strips between 1943 and 1944, intersecting in a cross layout and in approximately north-south and east-west directions. The airfield facility became a Royal Air Force station and was renamed RAF Changi in 1946 after the Japanese surrender. Imprisoned Japanese troops were then made to improve the runways, reinforcing the north-south runway for military aircraft and adding perforated steel plates to the east-west runway.

Completed post war, RAF Chia Keng — a GCHQ radio receiving station, was a satellite station of RAF Changi (being the Headquarters Air component part of British Far East Command) until the British Forces withdrawal from Singapore. Also, the nearby RAF Hospital Changi Old Changi Hospital (now defunct as Changi Hospital) functioned as the primary British military hospital providing medical care for all British, Australian and New Zealand servicemen stationed in the Eastern and Northern part of Singapore, while Alexandra Hospital was put in charge for those stationed in the Southern and Western part of Singapore.