With civil war in Libya increasing threatening civilians, the UK government ordered the British Armed Forces to perform a Non-combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO), codenamed
Deference.
Forward HQ was established in
Malta, where the RAF deployed a number of C-130 transports and
Chinook HC.2 for extractions of British nationals in and around Tripoli. The Royal Navy diverted assets near theatre or
in transt to extract via Benghazi.
A number of other nations mounted similar operations, in particular, Germany under
Operation Pegasus, to Crete and Canada, under
Operation Mobile.