Sembawang Air Base (SBAB) Pangkalan Udara Sembawang 胜宝旺(三巴旺)空军基地 (Shèng Bǎo Wàng [Sān Bā Wàng] Kōngjūn Jīdì) செம்பவாங் வான்படைத் தளம் (Cempavāṅ Vāṉpaṭait Taḷam) |
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Sembawang Air Base crest badge
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Summary | |||||||||||||||
Airport type | Military airbase | ||||||||||||||
Owner | Ministry of Defence (Singapore) | ||||||||||||||
Operator | Republic of Singapore Air Force | ||||||||||||||
Location | Sembawang, Singapore | ||||||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 26 m / 86 ft | ||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 01°25′31″N 103°48′46″E / 1.42528°N 103.81278°E | ||||||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Sembawang Air Base (ICAO: WSAG) is a military airbase of the Republic of Singapore Air Force located at Sembawang, in the northern part of Singapore. The base motto is "Dare and Will".
Prior to Singapore's independence from the United Kingdom, it was a Royal Air Force station known as RAF Sembawang as well as being the Royal Naval Air Station – HMS Simbang – to the carrier pilots of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (attached to the Eastern Fleet based in Singapore) who used it for rest and refit whenever an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy berthed at the nearby HMNB Singapore for refuel and repairs, which also housed the largest Royal Navy dockyard east of Suez up to the time of UK forces withdrawal from Singapore.
After the Japanese capture of Singapore during World War II, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service took over the two RAF stations of Sembawang and Seletar. Singapore was split into north-south spheres of control, and the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force took over RAF Tengah. It was not until September 1945 that the two airfields reverted to British control following the Japanese surrender.
RAF Sembawang was a key part of Britain's continued military presence in the Far East (along with the three other RAF bases in Singapore: RAF Changi, RAF Seletar, RAF Tengah) during the critical period of the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960), the Brunei Revolt in 1962 and the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation (1962–1966).