{"id":285364,"date":"2024-04-13T05:02:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T05:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=285364"},"modified":"2024-04-14T07:09:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T07:09:19","slug":"france-prepares-for-naval-warfare-against-an-enemy-that-wants-to-destroy-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=285364","title":{"rendered":"France prepares for naval warfare against an enemy that \u2018wants to destroy us\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laura Kayali \u2013 Politico Apr 11, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The French navy is shifting its training away from a focus on policing operations to gird for war against foes who want “to destroy us,” says Rear Admiral Jacques Mallard, the commander of France\u2019s carrier battle group.<\/p>\n

When he joined the armed forces in the 1990s, the French navy\u2019s main missions were to intercept drug traffickers and fight illegal fishing. Training consisted of practicing how to launch Zodiac inflatable boats and catching criminals.<\/p>\n

Now, training focuses on war, Mallard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNaval combat is becoming increasingly likely,\u201d he told POLITICO. \u201cWe\u2019re moving from a world where we were pretty free to do as we pleased to one where we feel threatened on a more regular basis … We now train for other missions, in particular what we call high-intensity warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

France is the only EU country operating a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier \u2014 the Charles de Gaulle, which also carries nuclear weapons. It is the flagship of a wider carrier battle group that includes nuclear submarines, frigates and Rafale fighter jets.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s carrier battle group is expected to start a mission in the Mediterranean Sea in the coming days.<\/p>\n

With Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine also spilling into the Black Sea<\/a> and Iran-backed Houthi rebels relentlessly attacking warships and commercial vessels <\/a>in the Red Sea, Western navies have to adapt to a new environment with \u201cincreasingly uninhibited competitors,\u201d Mallard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where we become a little more aggressive, or at least, we prepare to be,\u201d the rear admiral continued.<\/p>\n

Sailors practice fighting against \u201csomeone who wants to destroy us. Not someone who wants to do illegal trafficking, not someone who wants to steal fish, not someone who wants to watch or observe us: someone who wants to destroy us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the French navy introduced a new Polaris<\/a> training exercise that simulates a naval battle. The idea is to put crews and vessels into free-flowing combat situations that \u201cfrees up all the rules to develop the imagination of sailors and fighters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit more risky but it\u2019s very useful to disinhibit tactical thinking,\u201d Mallard said. In the spring, the French navy will conduct a Polaris-type exercise with the Italian fleet.<\/p>\n

Although France is preparing for high-intensity warfare at sea, Paris doesn\u2019t see China as an immediate threat \u2014 whereas the United States does.<\/p>\n

China has a \u201crather restrictive vision\u201d of freedom of navigation and decided to focus its efforts on controlling the South China Sea, Mallard said, adding that French diplomats and politicians regularly call out China\u2019s attempts to \u201cdestabilize the U.S.-led world order.\u201d<\/p>\n

But \u201cFrance does not position itself in a bipolar logic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as the Chinese haven\u2019t invaded the island of La R\u00e9union or decided to kick us off the island of Mayotte, there\u2019s no reason to single out the Chinese as our main adversary,\u201d he said, referring to French Indian Ocean island territories.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The commander of France\u2019s carrier battle group says war looks increasingly likely and the French Navy is taking steps to prepare for it <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":183386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-france"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=285364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285365,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285364\/revisions\/285365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/183386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=285364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=285364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=285364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}