David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Government has sought from or been given permission by the Italian government for use of the Sigonella air station in Sicily.

Penny Mordaunt

The UK Government has permission to operate from Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella. We make frequent use of it, for example in 2015, three Merlin helicopters were based there as a part of Operation WEALD, which provided search and rescue capability in the Mediterranean.

We are currently operating from NAS Sigonella as part of a NATO anti-submarine warfare exercise, Exercise DYNAMIC MANTA.