Trincomalee, Singapore, and the defense of fixed fleet bases

Would Trincomalee be a sensible fleet base if ballistic missiles made Singapore vulnerable?

Yes as a dispersed base, but Singapore would not automatically become unusable; any fixed naval base must be defended against missile attack.

Trincomalee would probably be used in the imagined British Empire even without a new missile threat to Singapore. A fixed fleet base can be targeted by ballistic missiles generally, so the DF-26 does not make Singapore uniquely unusable. The answer instead calls for defenses around critical infrastructure and cites THAAD as an example of the systems developed for that purpose. Such defenses are judged more promising against isolated or occasional attacks than a full nuclear exchange, when the number of incoming weapons could overwhelm them. A follow-up adds that intercepting even some missiles can reduce the burden on lower defensive layers.