The Rt Hon Phillip Hammond MP, the Secretary of State for Defence (SofS), visits 906 Expeditionary Air Wing (EAW) based at Gioia del Colle, Italy as part of Operation Ellamy.
The purpose of his visit was to aquaint himself with current operations and to congratulate the personnel on a successful operation. He was accompanied by Tom McKane, DGSecPol ; Air Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, Chief of Joint Operations (CJO) ; Air Commodore Waterfall, Air Component Commander (ACC); Hayden Allen, Special Advisor to SofS (SpAd1); Sian Jones, Special Advisor to SofS (SpAd2), Col Andrew McInerney, MA to SofS; Col Bob Barnes, Defence Attaché Italy and Mr Barry Burton, PS to SofS. Whilst at Gioia del Colle Air Base he was met and guided around by the Commanding Officer (CO) Group Captain Pete J M Squires MA Beng (Hons) RAF. Secretary of State greeting the 906 Expeditionary Air Wing (EAW) personnel based at Gioia del Colle, Italy. The 906 Expeditionary Air Wing is currently based at Gioia del Colle as part of Operation Ellamy, the UK contribution to NATO's Operation Unified Protector which enforces UN Security Council Resolution 1973, which aims to protect Libyan civilians from the Qadhafi regime. Photo: SAC TRACEY DOBSON/MoD.
Vigilance can confirm that British military assets used in operations over Libya were brought home last week, following NATO’s decision to conclude the mission today, 31st October.
Visiting Italy’s Gioia Del Colle airfield, where many of the UK air assets had been based throughout the campaign, Vigilance reliably learnt Defence Secretary Philip Hammond approved the immediate return of six Tornado GR4 fast jets.
A source at the MoD said the news of NATO’s decision came through while Mr Hammond was in Italy, enabling him to give the go-ahead to the initial drawdown – which would also see dozens of supporting staff return home.
However, Vigilance’s Defence and Security Team gathered that Operations would continue until today, whilst the number of missions would be scaled down significantly, leaving fewer aircraft.
The remaining British air assets, including another 10 Tornado GR4s, two VC10 tankers, two E3D Sentry and one Sentinel surveillance aircraft will return to the UK over the coming days. HMS Liverpool will begin its journey back to UK waters over the weekend.
On his visit to meet British personnel deployed on Operation ELLAMY – as Britain’s contribution to the campaign has been known – Mr Hammond who paid tribute to their work said: “Our armed forces can be immensely proud that their hard work has assured the liberty of the Libyan people. This is a job well done and we will be sending our crews home from tonight. I have given my personal thanks today to some of the aircrew and support personnel at Gioia del Colle.”
NATO’s announcement last week brings to a conclusion one of the most successful military campaigns that NATO and UK forces had conducted, and marks the point at which withdrawal of individual nation’s forces can commence.
At its peak, the UK had 2,300 personnel, 32 aircraft and four ships committed to the operation. The UK has flown more than 3,000 sorties, more than 2,100 of which were strike sorties, successfully striking around 640 targets.