It operates AgustaWestland Wildcat AH.1 helicopters and provides armed reconnaissance and light transport support to UK Commando Force.

[4][8] The squadron reformed at RNAS Eglinton, near Derry in Northern Ireland, on 17 March 1956, equipped with three Fairey Gannet A.S.1 anti-submarine aircraft.

The squadron received newer Gannet A.S.4s in June 1958, but returned to the United Kingdom in November 1959 after the end of the Emergency, disbanding at RNAS Yeovilton on 1 December 1959.

[4] The squadron reformed again at RNAS Culdrose in the Commando (i.e. troop support) role, equipped with Westland Whirlwind HAS.7 helicopters.

It was based at Sembawang in Singapore (known as HMS Simbang) from April 1964, briefly supplementing its Whirlwinds by a single Hiller Raven light helicopter in June, but disbanded on 2 December that year.

[9]: 280, 2  After the surrender of Argentine forces on the Falklands on 14 June 847 NAS relocated to Navy Point, a headland directly north of Port Stanley.

On 6 May 2006, one of the squadron's Lynxes, XZ614, was shot down over Basra in Iraq, by a surface-to-air missile (a Man Portable Air Defence System), killing 5 service personnel on board.

[11] In June 2019 the squadron embarked on RFA Argus for a deployment to the Baltic Sea as part of the Joint Expeditionary Force.