Small team’s delivering for RAF’s large aircraft

With less than 200 personnel, it is small for a Royal Air Force Deployed Operating Base, but the RAF detachment at Trapani, on the Italian island of Sicily, is playing a key role in the UK’s contribution to Operation Ellamy.

It provides most of the same facilities as its larger cousins and hosts the VC10 refuelling aircraft and the E-3D Sentry AWACS aircraft that are both vital capabilities for NATO’s Operation Unified Protector.

Wing Commander Rob Sutton is the man in charge, having just arrived from the UK. His first impression echoes that of many visitors to Trapani:
“I am intensely impressed. For such a small detachment, people’s morale is excellent and they are working hard to support two key assets.”

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