Sion Airport PC-6, Pilatus PC-7, Pilatus PC-9 and Pilatus PC-21 as well as helicopters it uses Sion intensively with the fighter jets F/A-18 and F-5 Tiger. It is the home base of the militia pilot unit Fliegerstaffel 19 Swans with F-5E. Sion Airport is, at both ends of the runway, equipped with retractable arresting gear devices (used by the F/A-18 and in case of a problem by the F-5). Because of the redimension of the Swiss Air Force it is planned that the Air Force will leave Sion after 2017 and Sion will be used by civil aviation only, acting only as
Sion, Switzerland troops and Sion was plundered. Under the Helvetic Republic, Sion was source of conflict between supporters and opponents of the new regime. In May 1799 counter revolutionary forces from Upper Valais looted the city again. In order to ensure peace in the Valais, the French General Louis Marie Turreau de Garambouville occupied Sion in 1801 and in 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte declared the independent Rhodanic Republic. It then remained independent until 1810 when it was annexed into France as the département of Simplon. Between 1798 and 1801 the representative of the Helvetic government resided in Sion. Under the French occupation, Joseph