Fleet Activities Sasebo

United States Fleet Activities Sasebo is a U.S. Navy installation at Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, on the island of Kyūshū, Japan. It provides logistic support to forward-deployed units and visiting operating forces of the United States Pacific Fleet and to designated tenant commands, and supports ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet.

The base is the homeport of Commander, Amphibious Squadron 11, whose forward-deployed ships include an America-class amphibious assault ship, San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks and a Whidbey Island/Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship. Commander, Mine Countermeasure Squadron 7 is also based at Sasebo with Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships. Landing craft, air cushion (LCAC) units are stationed at Sasebo, their numbers doubled following the change in East Asian force posture under the Obama administration. Earlier forward-deployed units have included Wasp-class amphibious assault ships, LST and LKA types, fleet stores ships (AFS), oilers, repair and salvage ships, coastal minesweepers and, between 1979 and 1989, Barbel-class diesel-electric submarines.

Sasebo functions as an ordnance and fuel supply point for fleet units and Marine forces; in 1990–91 it served in that capacity for ships and Marines operating in the Persian Gulf theatre, and during the Korean War it handled ammunition, fuel, vehicles and general supplies moving to United Nations forces. Shipyard and dockyard facilities at Sasebo date from the Imperial Japanese Navy period, when the yard outfitted surface ships, submarines and aircraft. Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force units of the Sasebo District Force are homeported alongside the American installation. Department of Defense Education Activity schools on the base include Ernest J. King Middle High School, Darby Elementary School and Sasebo Elementary School. The installation is jointly owned by the United States and Japan and controlled by the U.S. Navy.

Sasebo became a naval base in 1883, when Lieutenant Commander Tōgō Heihachirō proposed the fishing village as the site of an Imperial Japanese Navy station; the dockyard and associated naval stations employed some 60,000 people at their wartime peak. U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo was established in June 1946 following the arrival of American forces in September 1945. In the mid-1970s the installation was redesignated Naval Ordnance Facility Sasebo and fleet visits fell away, until it regained its former name on 4 July 1980 and Seventh Fleet ships were again forward-deployed there.