Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

Last updated
Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia in  British Indian Ocean Territory
B-1 Bombers on Diego Garcia.jpg
A US Air Force B-1B Lancer taking off from Diego Garcia as part of Operation Enduring Freedom during October 2001. Five other B-1Bs are visible parked in the foreground.
Navy-support-facility-diego-garcia-badge.jpg
Indian Ocean laea location map.svg
Red pog.svg
NSF Diego Garcia
Location in the Indian Ocean
Coordinates 7°18′48″S72°24′40″E / 7.31333°S 72.41111°E / -7.31333; 72.41111
TypeNaval Support Facility
Site information
Owner UK Ministry of Defence
Operator United States Navy
Royal Navy
Controlled by Commander, Navy Installations Command
British Forces British Indian Ocean Territories
ConditionOperational
Website Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia
Site history
Built1971 (1971) – 1976
In use1976 – present
Garrison information
Current
commander		 Captain R. Wade Blizzard
Airfield information
Identifiers ICAO: FJDG, WMO: 619670
Elevation4.1 metres (13 ft) AMSL
Runways
Direction Length and surface
13/313,659 metres (12,005 ft)  Concrete

Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia is a British Ministry of Defence facility leased to the United States Navy, located on the atoll Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Contents

Camp Thunder Cove is part of the facility, and is operated by the United States Armed Forces and British Armed Forces. [1]

Mission

Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia provides Base Operating Services to tenant commands located on the island. The command's mission is "To provide logistic support to operational forces forward deployed to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf AORs in support of national policy objectives." [2]

As of January 2012, the facility supported the following tenant commands:

History

In 1971, the local population of Diego Garcia, the Chagossians, was forcibly expelled from the island to make way for the base. [3]

The Navy tasked the Seabees of Naval Mobile Construction Battalions 1, 40, 62, 71, 133 and Amphibious Construction Battalion 2 with the construction of the base. [4] On 23 January 1971 the first men of NMCB 40 arrived on site to begin what became an extended project. [4] Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, was established as the senior United States Navy command on the island on 1 October 1977. At the time the NAVCOMMSTA was the primary tenant, but as new major facilities were completed, most notably the expanded anchorage and mooring area and the extended airfield, other tenants were commissioned. [5] In 1980, the United States Navy established the Near-Term Prepositioned Force of 16 ships. Then NTPF became the Afloat Prepositioning Force (AFP) and eventually Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron Two (MPSRON 2) consisting of 20 deep-water pre-positioned logistics ships anchored in the lagoon. [6]

In 1981, the naval air facility was commissioned. It was decommissioned in 1987 and its responsibilities returned to the Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia. [5]

In 1982, construction activities were transferred from the Seabees to a consortium of civilian contractors, Raymond International, and Brown and Root and Molem, a joint venture. Raymond had deep-draft wharf and waterfront skills, Brown and Root had concrete and infrastructure skills, and Molem was an English firm known for taking on challenging projects. The majority of the projects were completed by 1988. [7]

On 26 March 1982, Barbara Shuping and five other women were assigned to the Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia. They were the first women to live on the island since the Chagossians were expelled in 1971. [8]

In 1985, the new port facilities were completed and the USS Saratoga was the first aircraft carrier to tie up. [9]

The Strategic Air Command began deploying Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers and aerial refueling aircraft to the newly completed airfield facilities in 1987. [10]

Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, three ships of COMPSRON 2 sortied, delivering a Marine Expeditionary Brigade to Saudi Arabia for participation in the Gulf War. Other COMPSRON 2 ships offloaded the ammunition and fuel on Diego Garcia that were required for the American bomber fleet that deployed to the airfield. Subsequently, B-52G bombers flew more than 200 17-hour bombing missions over 44 days and dropped more than 800,000 short tons (730,000,000 kg) of bombs on the Iraqi Armed Forces in Iraq and Kuwait. One of the B-52s crashed from mechanical failures just north of the island with the loss of three of its six-man crew. [10]

Beginning on 7 October 2001, the United States again commenced military operations from Diego Garcia using B-1, B-2, and B-52 bombers to attack Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The base played an important role in the invasion of Afghanistan until the U.S.-led coalition could establish forward bases in the country because many countries closer to Afghanistan such as Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia refused to allow United States air bases in their territory to be used for combat operations. [11] On 12 December 2001, a B-1 bomber was lost to mechanical failures just after takeoff from the island, but the crew survived and was rescued by the USS Russell. [12] Four B-2 Shelter System Extra Large Deployable Aircraft Hangar Systems were erected at Diego Garcia to support the bombers' operations. [13] [14] Combat operations resumed in the spring of 2003, with MPSRON 2 sortieing to the Persian Gulf for the Iraq War, and bombing operations began again, this time against Iraq. [15] Bomber operations ceased from Diego Garcia on 15 August 2006. [16]

Based units

Flying and notable non-flying units based at Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia. [17] [18] [19]

Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at Diego Garcia, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.

Royal Navy

Military contracting

KBR runs base operations support services at Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia. [20] [21] Serco Inc., of Herndon, Virginia, operates and maintains the Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS), which tracks deep-space satellites. [22] [23]

Recent construction in support of US military activities on Diego Garcia has included:

Supplementary work at the facility includes Poole Fire Protection of Olathe, Kansas, testing and inspecting fire protection systems (June 2020 – June 2025); [28] Jacobs/B&M JV architect-engineer services, specifically design, engineering, specification writing, cost estimating (July 2020 – July 2025); [29] and InSynergy Engineering Inc. utility system studies (September 2020 – September 2025). [30]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diego Garcia</span> Island in the Indian Ocean

Diego Garcia is an island of the British Indian Ocean Territory, a disputed overseas territory of the United Kingdom also claimed by Mauritius. It is a militarised atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of the 60 small islands of the Chagos Archipelago. Portuguese sailors under Pedro Mascarenhas were the first Europeans to discover the island, finding it uninhabited in 1512. After a 1786 British colony failed, the French began using the island as a leper colony and, starting in 1793, coconut cultivation by enslaved labor. It was transferred to British rule after the Napoleonic Wars. It was one of the "Dependencies" of the British Colony of Mauritius until the Chagos Islands were detached for inclusion in the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in 1965.

MV <i>Virginian</i> Ship built in 1984

MV Virginian, formerly named the MV Strong Virginian (T-AKR-9205), is a combination container, heavy lift, and roll-on/roll-off ship. Owned and operated by Sealift Incorporated of Oyster Bay, New York, the ship is one of seventeen container—roll-on/roll-off ships in use by the Military Sealift Command, and one of 28 ships assigned to that organization's Sealift Program Office. The ship was previously known as the MV Saint Magnus and the MV Jolly Indaco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military Sealift Command</span> United States Navy command for logistics

The Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all US military services as well as for other government agencies. It first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) became solely responsible for the Department of Defense's ocean transport needs. The MSTS was renamed the Military Sealift Command in 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Station Newport</span> US Navy base in Rhode Island

The Naval Station Newport is a United States Navy base located in the city of Newport and the town of Middletown, Rhode Island. Naval Station Newport is home to the Naval War College and the Naval Justice School. It once was the homeport for Cruiser Destroyer Force Atlantic (COMCRUDESLANT), which relocated to Naval Station Norfolk in the early 1970s. In 1989 the base was added to the National Priorities List, after contamination had been discovered years earlier. Newport now maintains inactive ships at its pier facilities, along with the United States Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessels. In BRAC 2005, NAVSTA Newport gained over five hundred billets, in addition to receiving, again, the Officer Candidate School (OCS), the Naval Supply Corps School, and several other activities, to include a few Army Reserve units.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MacDill Air Force Base</span> US Air Force base in Tampa, Florida, United States

MacDill Air Force Base is an active United States Air Force installation located 4 miles (6.4 km) south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dobbins Air Reserve Base</span> Military base in Georgia, USA

Dobbins Air Reserve Base or Dobbins ARB is a United States Air Force reserve air base located in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Atlanta. Originally known as Dobbins Air Force Base, it was named in honor of Captain Charles M. Dobbins, a World War II C-47 pilot who died near Sicily.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andersen Air Force Base</span> United States Air Force base in Guam

Andersen Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located primarily within the village of Yigo in the United States territory of Guam. The host unit at Andersen AFB is the 36th Wing, assigned to the Pacific Air Forces Eleventh Air Force. As a non-flying wing, the 36 WG's mission is to provide support to deployed air and space forces of USAF, foreign air forces to Andersen, and tenant units assigned to the base.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Station Rota</span> Spanish-American naval base in Rota, Spain

Naval Station Rota, also known as NAVSTA Rota, is a Spanish-U.S. naval base commanded by a Spanish rear admiral. Located in Rota in the Province of Cádiz, NAVSTA Rota is the largest American military community in Spain, housing U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps personnel. There are also small U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force contingents on the base.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Base Ventura County</span> Group of US Navy installations near Oxnard, California

Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) is a United States Navy base in Ventura County, California. Formed by the merger of NAS Point Mugu and CBC Port Hueneme, NBVC is a diverse installation composed of three main locations — Point Mugu, Port Hueneme, and San Nicolas Island. The base serves as an all-in-one mobilization site, deep water port, railhead, and airfield. NBVC supports more than 100 tenant commands with a base population of more than 19,000 personnel, making it the largest employer in Ventura County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Amphibious Base Coronado</span> US Navy installation near San Diego, California, United States

Naval Amphibious Base Coronado is a US naval installation located across the bay from San Diego, California. The base, situated on the Silver Strand, between San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean, is a major Navy shore command, supporting over 30 tenant commands, and is the West Coast focal point for special and expeditionary warfare training and operations. The on‑base population is 5,000 military personnel and 7,000 students and reservists. The base is one of the eight components of Naval Base Coronado (NBC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Hospital Yokosuka Japan</span> Military unit

United States Naval Hospital Yokosuka Japan with its eight branch clinics are US Navy medical treatment facilities catering to the medical needs of eligible Sailors, Marines, Soldiers, Airmen, family members, U.S. government employees, retired military service members and other eligible beneficiaries of the Forward Deployed Naval Forces on mainland Japan, Korea and Diego Garcia. The core hospital is located on board Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka with branch clinics serving Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji, Commander Fleet Activities Chinhae Korea, Naval Support Activity Diego Garcia, Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and Commander Fleet Activities Sasebo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blount Island Command</span> Subordinate command of the United States Marine Corps Logistics Command

As the hub of the Marine Corps’ prepositioning programs, Marine Corps Support Facility Blount Island(MCSF-BI), located in Jacksonville, Florida, serves as the home of Blount Island Command(BICmd) and its worldwide mission of supporting the Fleet Marine Forces (FMF) who are Forward deployed and forward engaged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Indian Ocean Territory</span> British Overseas Territory in the Indian Ocean

The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands, many very small, amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres. The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 square kilometres, the site of a Joint Military Facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Official administration is remote from London, though the local capital is often regarded as being on Diego Garcia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Base Guam</span> US naval base in Guam

Naval Base Guam is a strategic U.S. naval base located on Apra Harbor and occupying the Orote Peninsula. In 2009, it was combined with Andersen Air Force Base to form Joint Region Marianas, which is a Navy-controlled joint base.

Expeditionary Transfer Dock Class of cargo ship

An Expeditionary Transfer Dock (ESD), formerly the Mobile Landing Platform (MLP), is designed to be a semi-submersible, flexible, modular platform providing the US Navy with the capability to perform large-scale logistics movements such as the transfer of vehicles and equipment from sea to shore. These ships significantly reduce the dependency on foreign ports and provide support in the absence of port availability. The class also houses a sub-class variant called the Expeditionary Mobile Base (ESB), formerly the Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joint Region Marianas</span> One of eleven naval regions of the U.S. Navy

Joint Region Marianas' mission is to provide installation management support to all Department of Defense components and tenants through assigned regional installations on Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands in support of training in the Marianas; to act as the interface between the Department of Defense and the civilian community; to ensure compliance with all environmental laws and regulations, safety procedures, and equal opportunity policy; and perform other functions and tasks as may be assigned.

USNS <i>Montford Point</i> Ship built in 2013

USNS Montford Point (T-ESD-1),, the lead ship of her class of Expeditionary Transfer Docks (ESD), is a ship named in honor of African American Marine Corps recruits who trained at Montford Point Camp, North Carolina, from 1942 to 1949. After $115 million was allocated for long-lead time material and advanced design efforts, in late 2010 General Dynamics's National Steel and Shipbuilding Company was awarded the contract, worth approximately $500 million, to build the first of three planned vessels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Air Facility Adak</span> United States Navy airport in the U.S. state of Alaska

Naval Air Facility Adak, was a United States Navy airport located west of Adak, on Adak Island in the U.S. state of Alaska. After its closure in 1997, it was reopened as Adak Airport. The facility was designated a National Historic Landmark for its role in World War II, although most of its elements from that period have been demolished or lie in ruins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp Thunder Cove</span> United States military base on Diego Garcia

Camp Thunder Cove, formerly Camp Justice is a United States Navy and Air Forces support facility within the US-UK Naval Support Facility on Diego Garcia, a small and isolated island in the Indian Ocean. The island is in the Chagos Archipelago, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overseas military bases of the United Kingdom</span>

Overseas military bases of the United Kingdom enable the British Armed Forces to conduct expeditionary warfare and maintain a forward presence. Bases tend to be located in or near areas of strategic or diplomatic importance, often used for the build-up or resupply of military forces, as was seen during the 1982 Falklands War and the use of RAF Ascension Island as a staging post. Most of the bases are located on British Overseas Territories or former colonies which retain close diplomatic ties with the British government.

References

  1. ↑ "Diego Garcia & Camp Thunder Cove: The UK's Dark Secret". The Mancunion. 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2022-05-29.
  2. ↑ About Navy Support Facility Diego Garcia retrieved 11 November 2011.
  3. ↑ "Chagos Islanders v Attorney General Her Majesty's British Indian Ocean Territory Commissioner [2003] EWHC 2222 (QB) (09 October 2003)". bailii.org. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  4. 1 2 Diego Garcia "Camp Justice" 7º20'S 72º25'E, GlobalSecurity.org web site
  5. 1 2 Natural Resources Management Plan (2005), paragraph 2.4.2.
  6. ↑ "COMPSRON TWO Home Page". Msc.navy.mil. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  7. ↑ Edis (2004), p. 90.
  8. ↑ Edis (2004), p. 91.
  9. ↑ Edis (2004), p. 93.
  10. 1 2 Edis (2004), p. 94.
  11. ↑ Blanchette, Nicholas (2021-12-16), Haun, Phil; Jackson, Colin; Schultz, Tim (eds.), "Operation Enduring Freedom: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Air Power over Afghanistan", Air Power in the Age of Primacy (1 ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 97–120, doi:10.1017/9781108985024.006, ISBN   978-1-108-98502-4, S2CID   245310361 , retrieved 2022-02-02
  12. ↑ Edis (2004), p. 96.
  13. ↑ "B-2 Shelter System [B2SS] Extra Large Deployable Aircraft Hangar Systems (Formerly: B-2 Shelter Program)". GlobalSecurity.org. Archived from the original on April 14, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2018. As of early January 2005, four completed shelters were visible on one of the parking ramps of Diego Garcia.
  14. ↑ Specht, Wayne (January 16, 2003). "Portable B-2 bomber shelters are built ... in parts (officially) unknown". Stars and Stripes .
  15. ↑ Edis (2004), p. 97.
  16. ↑ "Important Dates of the Provisional People's Democratic Republic of Diego Garcia". August 29, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2011.
  17. ↑ "Tenant Commands". Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia. US Navy. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  18. ↑ "20th Space Control Squadron". Peterson Air Force Base. US Air Force. 6 August 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  19. ↑ "21st Space Operations Squadron". Schriever Air Force Base. US Air Force. December 2019. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  20. ↑ "Contracts for November 7, 2019". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  21. ↑ "Contracts for November 10, 2020". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  22. ↑ "Contracts for February 12, 2021". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  23. ↑ Escape, The. "Serco Awarded New $57 Million U.S. Space Force Contract to Support Deep Space Surveillance System". Serco. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  24. ↑ "Contracts for February 21, 2020". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  25. ↑ "Contracts for January 21, 2021". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  26. ↑ "Contracts for January 21, 2021". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  27. ↑ "Contracts for July 15, 2020". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  28. ↑ "Contracts for June 26, 2020". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  29. ↑ "Contracts for July 6, 2020". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  30. ↑ "Contracts for September 25, 2020". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Retrieved 2021-02-15.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.