Before the opening of the deep water docking facilities
at Changi Naval Base - most foreign naval vessels on
friendly visits to Singapore will be anchored at the Eastern
Anchorage that is an area off the East Coast Parkway area.
Up until the late 1990s, when driving along the highest
level of the Benjamin Sheares Bridge, one could see the
big flat tops - and its accompanying escort vessels
- from the US Navy anchored off the East Coast Parkway.
Nowadays, all naval vessels from other countries that are
allowed to enter Singapore ports will sail directly to Changi.
With the Singapore shorelines being extended through land
reclamation, the surface water area between the shore lines and the
international sea boundary has reduced remarkably, and has
resulted in this surface area being packed with commercial ships
anchored off-shore to wait in turn for berthing space at the
PSA.
This has resulted in naval vessels sailing further
south from the Singapore territorial waters - so as to avoid
the commercial traffic in the tight waters that make up the
Singapore harbor - causing a seeming drop in the passage
of naval ship traffic through Singapore waters, and resulting
in disappointments to avid ''naval ship'' watchers.
Has anyone seen any Singaporean submarines within the waters of
Singapore, or making surface passage as it sail into the
international waters in the South China Sea for training ?
Not entirely true.....from reading a blog by a USN destroyer, I
learnt that the ship actually went down the shipping lines to give
the junior officers a feel of one of the world's busiest
waterway.
