PARIS — The key role of military helicopters in underpinning French national security was highlighted in the police assault on the two brothers who killed the journalists at the Charlie Hebdo weekly, with four helicopters assigned to the deadly task.
"The helicopters were up close to the action," Army Gen. Olivier Gourlez de la Motte, chief of the Army Air Corps, said Jan. 22. Three Army Pumas and one from the Air Force were committed, with one of those on standby, he said.
Three helicopters flew to Dammartin-en-Goële, the village where the killers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi had gone into hiding in a small print company and seized its owner as hostage. The fourth helicopter served as a back-up unit at the Villacoublay military base on the edge of the capital.
The helicopters flew in officers of the élite paramilitary unit Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale who were (GIGN), attached to a rope beneath the helicopter on the special patrol insertion/extraction system.
The pilots also flew reconnaissance flights over the key site.
The A top priority placed on domestic security will slow have slowed the government's response to a request for 10 or so attack and transport helicopters to reinforce the Barkhane operation in the Sahel sub-Saharan region.
"This evening, there is a theater on which I would like to insist, because it is at an unprecedented level," Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Jan. 22. "It is of course the national theater." The minister was speaking before service chiefs, industry leaders, politicians and foreign diplomatic officers at the New Year's reception at the Naval Museum.
The French forces have asked for more helicopters to boost the 20 or so choppers flying in the Barkhane mission, de la Motte said Jan. 9.
Some 15 helicopters are on stand-by for domestic missions, and the administration could send draw on these for sending to Africa for a three-month deployment, he said.
France launched the Barkhane operation last year, aimed at countering Islamist insurgents. France signed up Burkino Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger as partners, and the African nations are bases for some 3,000 French troops in the region.
"The target is to rise in strength," de La Motte told the defense journalists association. "Today we have around a dozen helicopters in Gao, and between eight and 10 for the special forces. The goal is to add 10 more," he said. Gao is a French military base in Mali.
The aim is "to have a real helicopter force for Barkhane," he said. The extra units would be a mix of Tiger and Gazelle combat, and Puma and Cougar transport helicopters.
Army planners have asked for six Tiger helicopters deployed in 2015, (eds: correct), he said. At Gao, there are presently three Tigers in the hélicopter appui et protection, (HAP), or lighter, version, under Barkhane command.
There are also two of the heavier hélicopter appui et destruction (HAD), or support and attack models, based in Central African Republic (CAR) under the Sangaris operation. These Tigers fly from the base at Bangui.
HAD Tigers are armed with laser-guided Hellfire II missiles and have a more powerful engine.
Airbus Helicopter on Dec. 10 delivered the first two of the HAD Block 2 version to the French Army. The Block 2 has an improved targeting system and additional added combat external fuel tanks, Airbus Helicopters said in a statement.
The helicopters are needed to help control the territory and to launch attack missions, de la Motte said.
The crews have built up a wide range of experience, having flown over Afghan mountains, in urban combat in the Ivory Coast, night missions in Libya and the more recent operations in Africa.
In the allied air operations in Libya, Tiger and Gazelle crews flew night missions from the Mistral helicopter carriers and operated under the "kill box" approach, which affords great autonomy to hit targets.
The US, UK and France equip fleets are unusual in equipping fleets with attack and transport helicopters on a 50:50 basis, while as most forces fly more of the latter type, de la Motte said.
Le Drian said At anthe international forum in Dakar, Senegal, Dec. 16, Le Drian said, "military action is indispensable but it is not enough on its own." Military is important but governance, development aid and economic growth are also crucial, he said.
"A lasting security can only come from combining these different factors," he said at the closing of the two-day conference.
French military intervention defeated advancing insurgents in Mali and prevented a civilian massacre in CAR, he said.
Email: ptran@defensenews.com.
