1995 To The Present
847 NAS reformed at RNAS Yeovilton with Royal Marines pilots and REME engineers on 1 September 1995, from 3 Commando Brigade Air Squadron, as a tactical support unit for the Royal Marines Commandos with Lynx AH.7 and Gazelle AH.1 helicopters (the Gazelles have since been withdrawn from use). The squadron has been active in Sierra Leone and in Kosovo. The most significant delpoyment of recent years was to Operation Telic in Iraq. In May 2006, one of the squadron's Lynxes was shot down over Basra in Iraq, killing 5 service personnel onboard including 847's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Darren Chapman. Along with 845, 846 and 848 naval air squadrons, the squadron forms part of the Commando Helicopter Force.
It is stated that several of its Lynx Helicopters are part of the Response Force Task Group.
Read more about this topic: 847 Naval Air Squadron
Famous quotes containing the words the present and/or present:
“The Past—the dark unfathom’d retrospect!
The teeming gulf—the sleepers and the shadows!
The past! the infinite greatness of the past!
For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“Sometimes all you need to do to win clever people over to a principle is to present it in the form of a shocking paradox.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)