The Diplomat
Between 12,000 and 14,000 British military personnel pass through Gibraltar each year, according to figures provided by the UK Defence Minister, James Heappey, in a reply in the House of Commons, which were reported yesterday by the Gibraltar Chronicle and Noticias de Gibraltar.
In the parliamentary answer to a question by Kenny MacAskill, which took place last week, James Heappey said that these “visits” by members of the British Armed Forces are in addition to the permanent presence of a further 1,000 people, including military personnel stationed on the Rock, civil servants and civilian contractors.
“Gibraltar is regularly used by visiting Royal Navy ships, RAF aircraft and other units that are temporarily deployed to carry out training,” the Defence Minister’s reply states.
Specifically, it details that in 2022, 79 military vessels arrived in Gibraltar, representing between 6,000 and 7,000 naval personnel; 117 military aircraft, with some 4,000 military passengers; and between 2,000 and 3,000 troops on training missions, mostly from the Army.
In addition to these ‘visits’, HMS Trent is deployed in Gibraltar and the British Ministry of Defence also has the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, with 235 personnel; the Gibraltar Squadron of the Royal Navy, with 28 personnel; another of the RAF (Royal Air Force), with 16 personnel; and the British Forces Headquarters in Gibraltar, with 145 personnel. Also, the Ministry of Defence has 528 civilian personnel under contract.
On the other hand, data have been released on the activities of the Royal Navy’s permanent squadron in Gibraltar, according to which they responded to 780 vessels of “foreign governments” in what are claimed to be British territorial waters of Gibraltar, although they are not recognised. The figure, however, falls because the same data admits that 571 of those 780 incursions were in accordance with the right of “innocent passage”.
