Cam Ranh Base

Early use: Russia, France and Japan

The Imperial Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet, 40 ships under Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, staged in Cam Ranh Bay in 1905 on its way to the Battle of Tsushima^[1]. France later used the bay as a naval base for its forces in Indochina, beginning construction of a naval port in 1911 under a naval officer named Fillommeus, and expanding it into a major base from 1939 as part of a wider defence plan for Indochina^[1][3].

Japan issued an ultimatum in September 1940 demanding control of bases including Cam Ranh, and occupied the bay in 1942 while preparing to invade British Malaya and Borneo^[1][3]. In January 1945, United States Navy Task Force 38 destroyed most of the Japanese facilities there in an action called Operation Gratitude, after which the bay was abandoned^[1].

The French base of 1948 and 1949

The French Ministry for Overseas France approved a reconstruction plan for Cam Ranh under Decree 48/1447 of 18 September 1948^[3]. Works finished at the end of 1948 entered service in 1949, including barracks, water and sewage systems and fuel storage for 5,000 cubic metres^[3]. The rebuilt base was designed to hold about 22,000 personnel in peacetime, with capacity for up to 100,000 during military operations for as long as a month^[3].

The American base, 1965 to 1972

Planning for a new United States base began in April 1965, and by 10 June 1965 about 4,000 American engineers had arrived to build it^[3]. A first runway was completed in 50 days, with Admiral U.S.G. Sharp laying its last section on 16 October 1965, and the base opened for operations on 1 November 1965^[2]. It grew to two paved runways of 10,000 feet each and a cargo apron of 1.3 million square feet (120,000 square metres)^[2].

The 12th Tactical Fighter Wing arrived on 8 November 1965 and the 483rd Tactical Airlift Wing was activated on 15 October 1966^[2]. By December 1966 the base was handling over 27,000 aircraft movements a month^[2]. The 483rd began standing down from 1 January 1972, and the base was handed to the South Vietnamese government on 15 May 1972^[2]; People's Army of Vietnam forces took the base on 3 April 1975^[2].

The Soviet and Russian lease, to 2002

The Soviet Union began leasing the base from Vietnam rent free under a 25 year treaty, and kept about 20 ships and six attack submarines there at its peak^[2]. The English article dates the start of the lease to 1979^[2]; Vietnamese Wikipedia’s article on the bay dates it to 1978^[7]. Control reverted to Vietnam on 2 May 2002^[2].

Russia and Vietnam signed a further agreement on 25 November 2014 setting standards for the use of the base by Russian warships^[2].

Vietnamese control and the international port

The civilian Cam Ranh International Airport, which shares the peninsula with the base, received its first scheduled commercial flight on 19 May 2004^[2]. Decision 44/2015/QĐ-TTg, signed by the Prime Minister on 22 September 2015 and effective from 6 November 2015, set out the security and safety regulation for the restricted military zone^[4].

Cam Ranh International Port, operated by Tan Cang - Petro Cam Ranh, a subsidiary of the Saigon Newport Corporation, opened within the base area on 8 March 2016^[5]. It has more than 2,100 metres of berths at an average depth of 20 metres, and can take cargo vessels of up to 110,000 deadweight tonnes, cruise ships of up to 225,000 gross tonnes and offshore drilling platforms in water up to 200 metres deep^[5].

Present day

The base remains an active Vietnamese naval installation. Saigon Newport Corporation reported that the international port had served close to 1,000 international and domestic vessels, including about 100 naval vessels from 14 countries, since its 2016 opening^[5].