Personnel at U.S. Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, Italy, were told to shelter in place for several hours Wednesday morning due to an unspecified “security incident” at the base. The U.S.-operated base is a key installation and logistics hub — home to some 7,000 troops and family members — for American and allied NATO operations in Europe.
A message shared on the NAS Sigonella Facebook page said the “shelter-in-place was ordered in response to a security incident” that was cleared by 11:25 a.m. local time (5:25 a.m. Eastern), when the lockdown was lifted.
CBS News was unable to reach Air Station Sigonella at a phone number provided for the base on Wednesday, and no further information on the nature of the security incident was immediately available.
The lockdown order was conveyed to personnel on the U.S. military base in a series of earlier posts on the Facebook page, which told all personnel on the NAS 2 part of the installation, where most operational work has taken place for years, to shelter in place and avoid travel between one of the base’s housing complexes and NAS 2.
The notices said entry and exit through at least some of the NAS 2 gates had been “secured.”
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“Sigonella has grown to be the premier logistics base in the Mediterranean as it continues to be a vital component in supporting U.S. and NATO operations within the European theater,” according to the U.S. Navy, which says the station’s primary mission “is to provide consolidated operational, command and control, administrative, logistical and advanced logistical support to U.S. and other NATO forces.”
The U.S.’ European NATO allies held a major military exercise last week in Romania, very near the country’s border with Ukraine, rehearsing for a hypothetical invasion of the alliance’s territory by Russia. The drill came almost exactly three years after Russia launched its ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sparking a war that President Trump has said he can end through negotiations with Russia’s autocratic leader Vladimir Putin.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials told The Associated Press and other outlets that Kyiv had reached an agreement with the Trump administration on a framework for an economic deal that would include the U.S. gaining access to Ukraine’s mineral resources, including its rare earth elements. Ukraine has hoped to strike a deal with the U.S. to ensure a continued flow of military support and, if a ceasefire deal is reached with Russia, some form of future security guarantees should Russia try to attack again.
