While the FIFA World Cup in Qatar allows some thirty nations to compete on the green rectangle, some are gathering on the open seas to pursue a very different common goal: strengthening deterrent and defensive postures in the Mediterranean, while securing NATO airspace against the Russian threat.
After leaving Toulon on November 15, the Charles de Gaulle and her naval aviation group are therefore operating with a number of partners in the eastern Mediterranean.
Among them, the United States, Greece, Great Britain, Turkey, Spain, Romania and even Italy qualified this time…
To fulfill their mission, these nations conduct air defense flights over Romania, an alliance country that shares a border with Ukraine but is also a Black Sea neighbor of Russia.
Surveillance mission and inter-allied training
To carry out this task, Charles de Gaulle’s France catapults Rafale Marine, whose mission is to intercept a potential adversary, as well as E2-C Hawkeye. The latter are “key units in the deterrence and defense system of the Alliance’s eastern flank. explains the Navy.
In fact, these machines perform well in the field of surveillance and transmission of information, giving the inter-allied system great responsiveness.
For Charles de Gaulle’s 1,200 seamen, observing the skies over Eastern Europe is not their only occupation. In fact, with conflicts on the rise, France and its partners have decided to raise the training bar with large-scale exercises. The goal? Develop interoperability and be ready to conduct warfare.
Thus, on November 23-25, France, Greece and the United States conducted several cooperative air defense exercises. These large-scale training sessions faced around thirty aircraft.
Simulation of air raids and commands
For the occasion, the French fighters, supported by an American frigate, faced the Greek F16, F4 and Rafale, which simulated several complex attacks on the forces of the Navy’s carrier battle group. Opportunity for French fighter planes to launch GBU-12, a guided bomb.
A few days ago, on November 26th, it was naval commandos who got their jersey wet in a unique exercise. Parachuted from an Atlantic 2 (ATL2) maritime reconnaissance aircraft, they landed on the Charles de Gaulle’s flight deck before boarding a Cayman Marine to storm a suspicious building played by a Greek frigate.
As a reminder, the final whistle of the Anteres mission should be within 3 months.