The Royal and the Navy go to the Aegean Sea
(B2) French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed it just after the mini Franco-German summit at the Elysee Palace on Friday (4 March): a French ship is leaving Toulon this week. Direction: the Aegean Sea to complete NATO's deployment there. This is the notice Commander Bouan (F-797), recently commanded by Lieutenant Commander Lucas Saliou, who was appointed for this mission, as specified by the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Rescue operations at sea, this high seas patrol boat knows them a little. He took part last fall in the operation led by the European agency Frontex in the Ionian Sea, off the coast of Italy, recovering several hundred refugees (read on the journal of the ship). He had stopped in Malta during the EU-Africa summit on migration and had received a visit at that time from the Head of State, François Hollande.
The Royal Navy also present
On the British side, it was David Cameron who, before the start of the Brussels summit, announced than the amphibious ship FRG Mounts Bay will leave for the Aegean Sea within the same framework. " This migration is the greatest challenge facing Europe today. " did he declare. The Downing Street tenant is thus continuing his maritime diplomacy. We do remember that in April, very soon after the European meeting on the migratory alert in the Mediterranean, he quickly decided to send a British frigate (read: Faced with the tragedy in the Mediterranean, the United Kingdom responds "present").
Mission: identify smugglers
The mission assigned by the Prime Minister to his ship is to " identifier the smugglers and pass the information to the Turkish Coast Guard so that they can intercept these boats ». In its task the RFA Mounts bay will be supported by 3 border guard boats: the YOUR Graces « who is already in the Aegean Sea », with a team of British border guards (Greek and Italian), a medical team within the framework of the Frontex operation, another patrol « which is on the way to the region ". A third should join him “ this month (to take over from the first).
But also rescue at sea?
FRG Mounts Bay (L-3008) is an amphibious ship, equipped with a Wildcat-type on-board helicopter. He was notably deployed during the operation in Sierra Leone in 2006 and took part in the Corsican Lion exercise in 2002 (read: The Royals surround Corsica). It's not really the ideal ship for observing and collecting information, discreetly. On the other hand, it can accommodate a lot of people on board: a staff or refugees. Or both. It will have two coastal patrol boats on board, thus enabling it to come to the aid of the "shipwrecked".
(NGV)
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