France
prepares for naval warfare against an enemy that ‘wants to destroy us’. French rear admiral tells Politico in an exclusive interview
By Laura Kayali
- "Politico"
PARIS — 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’s carrier battle group.
When he joined the armed forces in
the 1990s, the French navy’s main missions were to intercept drug traffickers
and fight illegal fishing. Training consisted of practicing how to launch
Zodiac inflatable boats and catching criminals. Now, training focuses on war,
Mallard said.
“Naval combat is becoming
increasingly likely,” he told POLITICO. “We’re 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.”
France is the only EU country
operating a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier — 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.
France’s carrier battle group is expected to start a mission in the
Mediterranean Sea in the coming days.
With Russia’s war against Ukraine
also spilling into the Black Sea and
Iran-backed Houthi rebels relentlessly attacking warships and commercial
vessels in the Red Sea, Western navies have to adapt to a new
environment with “increasingly uninhibited competitors,” Mallard said.
“That’s where we become a little
more aggressive, or at least, we prepare to be,” the rear admiral continued.
Sailors
practice fighting against “someone 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,” he
said.
In 2021, the French navy
introduced a new Polaris
training exercise that simulates a naval battle. The idea is to put crews and
vessels into free-flowing combat situations that “frees up all the rules to
develop the imagination of sailors and fighters.”
“It’s a bit more
risky but it’s very useful to disinhibit tactical thinking,” Mallard
said. In the spring, the French navy will conduct a Polaris-type exercise with
the Italian fleet.
Although France is preparing for
high-intensity warfare at sea, Paris doesn’t see China as an immediate threat —
whereas the United States does.
China has a “rather restrictive
vision” 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’s attempts to “destabilize the U.S.-led
world order.” But “France does not position itself in a bipolar logic,” he
said.
“As long as the Chinese haven’t
invaded the island of La Réunion or decided to kick us off the island of
Mayotte, there’s no reason to single out the Chinese as our main adversary,” he
said, referring to French Indian Ocean island
territories.
***
(Laura
Kayali www.politico.eu)