The French Navy’s Jeanne D’Arc coaching and operational mission deployment started Monday as the duty group, comprising of amphibious assault ship FS Mistral (L9013) and frigate FS Surcouf (F711), left from Toulon, France, for a five-month deployment to the Atlantic and Arctic Circle area.
The Jeanne d’Arc mission is an annual deployment for the French Navy – named for former helicopter cruiser Jeanne d’Arc (R97), which primarily served as a coaching ship for the French naval academy. Following the ship’s decommissioning in 2010, the French Navy continued the mission title with one in every of its three Mistral-class amphibious assault ships and a floor escort finishing up the deployment.
The mission combines the top stage of the coaching course for French naval academy cadets with an operational presence and engagement deployment, in response to the French Navy’s operational focus. Final 12 months, the duty group practically circumnavigated South America whereas doing drills and engagements adopted by an train within the U.S.
“Throughout these 5 months of mission, the amphibious group will journey the Atlantic from the Ivory Coast to the Arctic Circle, by way of the Antilles, to return to France by way of the Baltic Sea. Amphibious workout routines will punctuate the deployment, permitting the embarked tactical group to coach specifically with Brazilian, American and Norwegian pressure,” in response to a French Navy launch on the deployment.
The duty group may also take part in Operation Corymbe within the Gulf of Guinea and the struggle in opposition to drug trafficking within the Antilles. Operation Corymbe started in 1990 with France deploying one to 2 ships on a semi-permanent foundation to help regional international locations in countering piracy within the Gulf of Guinea.
A complete of 640 French Navy sailors, together with 151 cadets, and 150 French troopers forming a tactical battle group and an airmobile component create the duty pressure.
The French Navy is deploying a single Dauphin helicopter and a S100 Camcopter rotary wing Unmanned Aerial car (UAV). The French Military battle group contains 90 troopers forming a command and help part, an infantry part, a lightweight cavalry platoon, a 120mm mortar part and an amphibious reconnaissance squad. It can carry 40 automobiles – a mixture of fight, help and engineering automobiles whereas the airmobile component include two Gazelle reconnaissance helicopters and two Cougar tactical transport helicopters and 60 troopers.
Further French Navy ships could also be deployed and built-in into the duty group at sure phases to help the duty group’s goal, in response to a French launch. No dates have been disclosed for the duty group’s schedule although its route, actions and stops have been proven in a map.
From Toulon, the Jeanne D’Arc activity group will head to the Gulf of Guinea to hold out Operation Corymbe together with a port name in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and subsequently cross the Atlantic to Forteleza, Brazil, and perform amphibious train Fortaleza 25 with the Brazilian Navy.
It then strikes on to the French territory of French Guinea after which to the French territory of Guadeloupe within the Caribbean the place the duty group will conduct actions in help of French operations round each territories with amphibious coaching additionally carried out round Guadeloupe.
The duty group will make a remaining South America port go to in Cartagena, Colombia, and transfer on to North America.
New Orleans would be the Jeanne D’Arc activity group’s first U.S. cease. From there the duty group will sail to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., to hold out an amphibious touchdown as a part of the U.S.-French train Chesapeake 25, adopted by port visits to New York, Quebec and the French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon earlier than shifting on to the Arctic Circle.
The duty group will sail close to Greenland enroute to a port go to to Reykjavik, Iceland, after which
transfer on to Tromso, Norway for a port go to after which an operational go to to Tromso earlier than conducting Train Njord 25 with the Norwegian Armed Forces. Port visits to Malmo, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark, wrap up the Northern Europe section of the deployment with the duty group conducting train Entendard 25 off the coast of southwest France, a remaining commencement train for the embarked cadets, earlier than heading again to Toulon.
Marines Deploy to Finland
The Marine Corps introduced Feb. 21 in a launch that 40 U.S. Marines from the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion primarily based out of Camp Lejeune, deployed to Finland in help of the NATO-led Baltic Sentry enhanced vigilance exercise.
The Marines will function alongside the End Coastal Brigade.
“Marines will present sUAS (small Unmanned Aerial Methods) and different expeditionary-based capabilities aimed toward safeguarding crucial infrastructure within the Baltic Sea by rising surveillance, info trade and consciousness. The Marine Corps’ capacity to be an expeditionary and agile pressure, with experience in littoral environments, makes us a logical companion for this kind of enhanced vigilance exercise,” reads the discharge.
Whereas the discharge didn’t point out the sUAS system deployed, pictures supplied with the discharge confirmed the deployed Marines working the RQ-20 UAS. NATO launched Operation Baltic Sentry on Jan. 14 to discourage additional makes an attempt to break crucial underwater infrastructure within the Baltic Sea.
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