Military strike in Syria. Some failures in the sending of the missiles
(B2) Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly refused on Friday (April 20) to comment on press reports reporting technical hazards experienced by the French armies during Western strikes in Syria, which would have prevented them from firing as many missiles as planned. .
No comment on classified information
« I do not intend to comment on the performance of this or that weapon system, this information, whether true or false, is classified, I will not comment on it “, reacted the minister on France Bleu Provence. " Our objectives have been achieved and we have nothing to add regarding the performance of the weapon systems “, she argued. The general staff of the armies, contacted on Friday, is naturally not more verbose: " The military effect has been achieved. We do not comment on operational planning details ».
A Missing Scalp
During the strikes, Paris announced that it had fired twelve cruise missiles (9 from Rafales, 3 from a frigate) out of the hundred that targeted Syria as part of these strikes. According to the blog Le Mamouth, followed by other media, a Rafale failed to fire one of the ten Scalp missiles to be launched from the air by French planes.
NB: in general, the Rafale are equipped with two missiles which are fired at the same time. The figure of 9 shots, provided by 5 Rafale, officially announced, was therefore quite strange. The missile was eventually released at sea.
And a maritime misfire
At the same time, according to Letter A, and several other colleagues, the navy also experienced some problems with its missiles. The frigate Aquitaine, which was to provide the first shots, experienced a launch failure and was unable to carry out its mission. It was the Languedoc frigate which had to take over, to ensure the launch of three naval cruise missiles (MdCN).
NB: a failure that did not really hinder the general mission. This type of misfire is common in strike missions. Hence, in general, a fairly broad planning in terms of the number of missiles sent to the targets. In this case, with 103 missiles on three "small" targets, the allies had planned very, very large!
A first operational use
This is the first time that France has used this type of missile, with a range of 1.000 km, thus joining the closed club of countries having, like the United States and Russia, cruise missiles on board ships of surface. " For the first time, without amphibious means, without special forces, without aircraft carriers, with the frigates our country has a missile that can hit installations in depth on enemy territories “, declared to AFP the chief of staff of the Navy, the admiral Christophe Prazuck,
A unique capacity in Europe
« Within the European Union, France is the only one to have this capacity " he added. " The objectives have been achieved. This is a first operational demonstration of the system's efficiency. Nevertheless, we still have experience to take away from the whole process, that's what we're going to do in the coming weeks. “, he added, without further details. These naval cruise missiles are expected to soon equip the French Barracuda nuclear attack submarines, the first of which is due to enter service in 2020.
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde, with AFP and Romain Mielcarek, in Paris)
Article completed on 22.04
