Latest news with #Atlantique2
Morocco World
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Morocco World
French Navy's Clémenceau 25 Map Shows Full Morocco Including Sahara
Doha – Since recognizing Morocco's sovereignty over its Sahara in July 2024, France has translated words into concrete actions, most recently through the official Clémenceau 25 naval mission map depicting Morocco's complete territorial integrity from Tangier to Lagouira. The French naval staff published this unambiguous cartographic representation without hesitations or special markings, presenting Morocco's southern provinces as an integral part of the kingdom. This decisive move builds on President Emmanuel Macron's declaration that Western Sahara's future lies 'within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty.' Morocco's Royal Navy sailed alongside the French carrier group, deploying a frigate to join vessels from Italy, the United States, Greece, and Portugal in a multinational maritime formation. The operational integration shows the deepening military partnership between Rabat and Paris. The Clémenceau 25 mission navigated from Mediterranean waters to the Indo-Pacific, orchestrating an intricate naval ballet across multiple theaters. French forces synchronized six allied frigates while positioning Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft across strategic nodes in Djibouti, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore. 'The only basis' October 2024 witnessed the French Foreign Ministry's pivotal update to its official North Africa map, incorporating the Sahara within Morocco's borders. During his state visit that same month, Macron addressed Morocco's parliament, championing the 2007 Autonomy Plan as 'the only basis for a just, lasting, and negotiated political solution.' French commitment materialized through unprecedented diplomatic missions to Laayoune and Dakhla. These southern cities, once diplomatically sidestepped, now host regular visits from high-ranking French officials. April brought visa services directly to Laayoune residents, eliminating the need for northward travel to access French consular facilities. The Clémenceau 25 operations unfolded across four distinct Indo-Pacific sequences. January's La Pérouse 25 exercise assembled nine nations to tackle security challenges in the Straits of Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok. The Rastaban mission catapulted three Rafale Marine fighters to Darwin, Australia, executing joint maneuvers with Australian squadrons 2,000 kilometers from the carrier group. February's Pacific Steller exercise unleashed 100 aircraft from French, American, and Japanese carriers in high-intensity combat scenarios. The 42nd Varuna exercise in March welcomed India's INS Vikrant, cementing strategic maritime bonds with New Delhi. In parallel with this multinational operation, Morocco's navy conducted its own FLOTTEX-25/1°S exercise from April 14-18 in the northern Mediterranean. This drill involved conventional warfare simulations, electronic warfare training, and night helicopter operations from ships. Read also: CIA Updates Official Map, Recognizes Western Sahara as Part of Morocco France's cartographic acknowledgment arrives amid a cascade of international recognition for Morocco's territorial integrity. This diplomatic momentum has cornered Algeria, historically backing the separatist Polisario Front. Intelligence suggests President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has dispatched emissaries to restore damaged ties with Paris. France's current UN Security Council presidency could herald transformations in the MINURSO mission overseeing the Sahara. Multiple contracts within the UN operation reportedly face termination, signaling a potential drawdown of international presence. Conservative policy architects aligned with Donald Trump have circulated strategic papers advocating UN budget redirections toward key allies, explicitly naming Morocco as a priority partner deserving enhanced support. French Ambassador Christophe Lecourtier crystallized his country's commitment while inaugurating Casablanca's expanded visa center: 'Laayoune residents will now access identical services.' The sprawling 3,500-square-meter complex processes 1,200 applications daily, with dedicated channels for business travelers through Air France, Renault, and other French corporations anchored in Morocco. Tags: Map of MoroccoMorocco France RelationsWestern sahara
New York Times
31-03-2025
- New York Times
A NATO Plane Tracks and Dodges Russia in the Baltic Sea
The French naval patrol plane descended rapidly through the clouds, leveling off at 900 feet above the Baltic Sea, practically skimming the waves. The target was a Russian warship, which came into view off the plane's port side, dark gray against a light gray horizon. The aircraft, an Atlantique 2 of the French Navy, was designed to hunt submarines and other enemy naval craft, but on this day its torpedo bay was empty and its only weapons were a high-resolution camera and other sophisticated surveillance instruments. The goal was to observe, and be seen observing. 'We are to show that we are here,' said Romain, a lieutenant commander and a member of the plane's crew. Never fully tranquil, the Baltic Sea, with a coastline heavily militarized by Northern European and Russian navies, has become an increasingly tense theater in the conflict between Moscow and the West. Later on the patrol, Russian forces attempted to jam the plane's GPS, and at one point, another Russian warship locked on to the plane with radar, a warning that it could open fire. Russian naval ships and a submarine were visible in the sea below. But the main reason the French naval plane was on patrol lay underwater. Three times over the past year and a half, commercial ships are suspected of having damaged critical undersea communications cables and a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. European officials fear that these were acts of sabotage, with the Kremlin viewed as the primary suspect, though finding hard evidence has proved difficult. Image A Russian naval ship seen on the monitor of an Atlantique 2 of the French Navy patrolling over the Baltic Sea this month. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Airbus A321 Airliners To Be Modified Into 'Flying Frigate' Patrol Jets By France
Airbus Defense and Space has begun a risk-assessment study for France's future maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), to be based on an Airbus A321 airliner platform. Billed as a 'flying frigate' by the company, the new MPA is intended to replace the French Navy's Dassault Atlantique 2 fleet but emerges at a time when NATO nations are increasingly adopting the in-production Boeing P-8 Poseidon for their maritime patrol requirements. Airbus yesterday announced a contract for further risk-reduction studies of the new maritime patrol aircraft. The contract was awarded by the Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA), France's defense procurement agency, with Airbus Defense and Space as prime contractor, in partnership with European defense corporation Thales. The contract runs for two years and follows a previous architecture and feasibility study launched at the end of 2022. The latest contract is intended to prepare for the full-scale development of a new MPA that could start at the end of 2026, followed by the production launch. It will involve the first wind tunnel tests as well as work out technical specifications, so the various onboard systems can be chosen. It will also look at the economic and industrial conditions involved in the program. Significantly, the latest study specifies a maritime patrol variant of the A321XLR airliner, known as the A321 MPA. The earlier study had looked at building an MPA version of either an unspecified version of the A320 family or the Dassault Falcon 10X business jet While Airbus had considered the shorter A320neo as a potential platform for a new MPA, the longer fuselage of the A321 means that it can accommodate additional fuel and a larger payload bay, as well as having an increased capacity for sensors and other mission systems. The basic A321XLR airliner has a range of 4,700 nautical miles (around 5,400 miles). 'The A321 MPA has all the assets to become a true flying frigate capable of responding to the wide range of missions entrusted to the French maritime patrol,' said Jean-Brice Dumont, Executive Vice President, Head of Air Power at Airbus Defense and Space, in a company statement. 'Airbus offers a sovereign solution that provides the autonomy, availability, and reliability required to contribute to the oceanic component of the nuclear deterrence.' Interestingly, Dumont referred specifically to one of the current Atlantique 2's missions, namely protecting the French Navy's nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) fleet as it heads out on patrol, or returns to its base, as a cornerstone of France's strategic deterrent. Other missions outlined for the A321 MPA at this stage include anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare, 'from low to high intensity,' as well as intelligence gathering. The turboprop-powered Atlantique 2 in service today was originally developed with anti-submarine warfare as its primary mission, but subsequently increasingly took on an anti-surface warfare role against enemy warships. More recently, it's been mainly used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and even strike missions overland. Indeed, embracing operations overland, including taking part in counter-insurgency campaigns in the Middle East and in West Africa, has been the most remarkable change in the Atlantique 2's mission profile. At this stage, however, the A321 MPA is being developed primarily for the overwater role, reflecting the return to prominence of anti-submarine warfare, as well as maritime patrol more generally, especially to counter Russian activities, conventional or otherwise. The mission equipment for the A321 MPA will be provided, to a significant degree, by Thales, and will include an active electronically scanned array (AESA) search radar and acoustic systems, including passive and active sonobuoys, for anti-submarine warfare. Like the Atlantique 2, it will also have a magnetic anomaly detector for acquiring submerged submarines. It will be fitted with self-protection equipment and satellite communications and will almost certainly also feature electronic support measures (ESM) to intercept radio-frequency transmissions. Triangular-shaped fairings scabbed on the side of the A321 MPA in the artist's rendering at the top of this story may well contain ESM. The same rendering of the A321 MPA also shows a sensor turret below the forward fuselage. After various upgrades, the Atlantique 2 has two separate sensor turrets: a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera under the nose and an MX-20 turret that contains four different cameras and is primarily employed during overland missions, including for ISR. 'The aircraft's large cargo bay and the open architecture of its mission system give it a great capacity to evolve throughout its lifecycle to meet the emergence of new threats,' Airbus says of the A321 MPA. The weapons for the A321 MPA will include anti-submarine torpedoes as well as anti-ship missiles, some of which will be carried in the bay behind the wing, although wing pylons will likely also be provided. In particular, the aircraft is expected to be armed with the new anti-ship missile that's being developed under the Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) program that is run jointly by France, the United Kingdom, and Italy. FC/ASW plans to field two different missiles: a low-observable cruise missile and a highly maneuverable supersonic missile. While the former will replace the Storm Shadow/SCALP air-launched cruise missiles, the latter will be the successor to the Exocet and Harpoon anti-ship missiles and will arm the A321 MPA. The Anti-Ship Weapon component of FC/ASW is expected to be a ramjet-powered missile, which will be much faster and more agile than previous-generation Western air-launched anti-ship missiles. Although being optimized to engage heavily defended naval targets, it's also expected to have a secondary defense-suppression capability and there have even been indications it could have an air-to-air role for use against high-value airborne assets (HVAAs) at long ranges. At the same time, there may be potential for the A321 MPA to be armed with the new land-attack missile, too. The potential of aircraft in this class to provide useful additional long-range strike capacity, especially in the context of adversaries' anti-access capabilities, is something TWZ has considered in the past. Notably, Airbus also points to the A321 MPA having a 'high-maneuverability capability, including at low altitude.' This seems to point to traditional concerns around using jet-powered aircraft for the MPA mission, rather than their slower- and lower-flying turboprop brethren, which are more efficient in this regime. The same issue applies to the P-8, which was also planned to prosecute underwater targets from high altitude. Previously, the P-8 had to drop down to release a standard Mk 54 torpedo, but it has now added the High-Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapon Capability (HAAWC) folding-wing kit to the same weapon, meaning it can also launch them from higher levels. It's not clear if a similar solution will be developed for the A321 MPA. Current plans call for the MPA to replace the French Navy's fleet of aging Atlantique 2s sometime in the 2030s or 2040s. Currently, the French Navy has 18 Atlantique 2s upgraded to the latest Standard 6 configuration and, in the past, the service has said it will retain these until 2035. They are stationed at Lann-Bihoué naval air base in northern France. As for the A321, this has, so far, seen limited uptake for special-mission military applications. At one time, the A321 was envisaged as the platform for NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system, which provides the alliance with reconnaissance capabilities, including synthetic aperture radar. However, this capability was eventually fielded on NATO's fleet of five RQ-4D Phoenix uncrewed aerial vehicles, specialized versions of the Global Hawk. Since then, India has selected the A321 as the platform for its future airborne early warning and control aircraft, the Netra Mk 2. Originally, it appeared that A320s would be chosen for this program, as you can read about here, but New Delhi eventually settled on the stretched fuselage, longer-range A321, buying six former Air India airframes for conversion. Returning to the MPA mission, the A321 MPA continues the French tradition of locally developing aircraft to meet this requirement. Ultimately, France pursued the Atlantique 2 alone and the aircraft failed to secure any export orders. Should full-scale development and production of the A321 MPA follow as planned, the aircraft will enter a very competitive marketplace in which the U.S.-made P-8 Poseidon appears to have already secured most of the obvious orders. In terms of NATO forces alone, the P-8 has been ordered by Canada, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom, and close ally Australia has been operating the Poseidon for years now. The fact that the German Navy opted for the U.S. product is a particular blow for France, which had previously been working with Germany on a joint program to develop a new MPA — the Maritime Airborne Warfare System (MAWS). Only yesterday, the German Ministry of Defense published photos of its first P-8 taking shape with Boeing in Seattle. The first P-8A for German Marineflieger received its paintjob in Seattle, WA. Deliveries for eight aircraft on order are to start in August this year. Via Bundeswehr WhatsApp-channel (sigh). — Alex Luck (@ 2025-02-04T15:27:14.715Z The P-8 has also been ordered by India, New Zealand, and South Korea further reducing the potential MPA market share for the A321 MPA, which looks like it will offer a very similar set of capabilities. Perhaps France might have better luck offering the A321 MPA to potential customers in the Middle East where it has traditionally had a strong footprint. Meanwhile, there is a growing demand for maritime surveillance in the Asia Pacific region, particularly around the South China Sea. This strategically important waterway links the Indian and Pacific Oceans and China claims large swathes of it, leading to frequent tensions and standoffs. Here, Chinese submarine activity is a particular concern, as you can read about here. While the A320 family has been an undoubted success as an airliner, it remains to be seen whether the A321 MPA will achieve positive results. However, unless France also decides to buy the P-8 — which seems politically highly unlikely — there are few other obvious options to replace its hard-worked Atlantique 2 fleet. Contact the author: thomas@
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
11 Baltic cables damaged in 15 months, pushing NATO to boost security
ABOARD A FRENCH NAVY FLIGHT OVER THE BALTIC SEA — With its powerful camera, the French Navy surveillance plane scouring the Baltic Sea zoomed in on a cargo ship plowing the waters below — closer, closer and closer still until the camera operator could make out details on the vessel's front deck and smoke pouring from its chimney. The long-range Atlantique 2 aircraft on a new mission for NATO then shifted its high-tech gaze onto another target, and another after that until, after more than five hours on patrol, the plane's array of sensors had scoped out the bulk of the Baltic — from Germany in the west to Estonia in the northeast, bordering Russia. The flight's mere presence in the skies above the strategic sea last week, combined with military ships patrolling on the waters, also sent an unmistakable message: The NATO alliance is ratcheting up its guard against suspected attempts to sabotage underwater energy and data cables and pipelines that crisscross the Baltic, prompted by a growing catalogue of incidents that have damaged them. 'We will do everything in our power to make sure that we fight back, that we are able to see what is happening and then take the next steps to make sure that it doesn't happen again. And our adversaries should know this,' NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said this month in announcing a new alliance mission, dubbed 'Baltic Sentry,' to protect the underwater infrastructure vital to the economic well-being of Baltic-region nations. Power and communications cables and gas pipelines stitch together the nine countries with shores on the Baltic, a relatively shallow and nearly landlocked sea. A few examples are the 94-mile Balticconnector pipeline that carries gas between Finland and Estonia, the high-voltage Baltic Cable connecting the power grids of Sweden and Germany, and the 729-mile C-Lion1 telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany. Undersea pipes and cables help power economies, keep houses warm and connect billions of people. More than 807,800 miles of fiber optic cables — more than enough to stretch to the moon and back — span the world's oceans and seas, according to TeleGeography, which tracks and maps the vital communication networks. The cables are typically the width of a garden hose. But 97% of the world's communications, including trillions of dollars of financial transactions, pass through them each day. 'In the last two months alone, we have seen damage to a cable connecting Lithuania and Sweden, another connecting Germany and Finland, and most recently, a number of cables linking Estonia and Finland. Investigations of all of these cases are still ongoing. But there is reason for grave concern," Rutte said on Jan. 14. At least 11 Baltic cables have been damaged since October 2023 — the most recent being a fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland, reported to have ruptured on Sunday. Although cable operators note that subsea cable damage is commonplace, the frequency and concentration of incidents in the Baltic heightened suspicions that damage might have been deliberate. There also are fears that Russia could target cables as part of a wider campaign of so-called 'hybrid warfare' to destabilize European nations helping Ukraine defend itself against the full-scale invasion that Moscow has been pursuing since 2022. Without specifically blaming Russia, Rutte said: 'Hybrid means sabotage. Hybrid means cyber-attacks. Hybrid means sometimes even assassination attacks, attempts, and in this case, it means hitting on our critical undersea infrastructure.' Finnish police suspect that the Eagle S, an oil tanker that damaged the Estlink 2 power cable and two other communications cables linking Finland and Estonia on Dec. 25th, is part of Moscow's 'shadow fleet' used to avoid war-related sanctions on Russian oil exports. Finnish authorities seized the tanker shortly after it left a Russian port and apparently cut the cables by dragging its anchor. Finnish investigators allege the ship left an almost 62-mile-long anchor trail on the seabed. Several Western intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of their work, told The Associated Press that recent damage was most likely accidental, seemingly caused by anchors being dragged by ships that were poorly maintained and poorly crewed. One senior intelligence official told AP that ships' logs and mechanical failures with ships' anchors were among 'multiple indications' pointing away from Russian sabotage. The official said Russian cables were also severed. Another Western official, also speaking anonymously to discuss intelligence matters, said Russia sent an intelligence-gathering vessel to the site of one cable rupture to investigate the damage. The Washington Post first reported on the emerging consensus among U.S. and European security services that maritime accidents likely caused recent damage. The European Subsea Cables Association, representing cable owners and operators, noted in November after faults were reported on two Baltic links that, on average, a subsea cable is damaged somewhere in the world every three days. In northern European waters, the main causes of damage are commercial fishing or ship anchors, it said. In the fiber-optic cable rupture on Sunday connecting Latvia and Sweden, Swedish authorities detained a Maltese-flagged ship bound for South America with a cargo of fertilizer. Navibulgar, a Bulgarian company that owns the Vezhen, said any damage was unintentional and that the ship's crew discovered while navigating in extremely bad weather that its left anchor appeared to have dragged on the seabed. The alliance is deploying warships, maritime patrol aircraft and naval drones for the mission to provide 'enhanced surveillance and deterrence.' Aboard the French Navy surveillance flight, the 14-member crew cross-checked ships they spotted from the air against lists of vessels they had been ordered to watch for. 'If we witness some suspicious activities from ships as sea — for example, ships at very low speed or at anchorage in a position that they shouldn't be at this time — so this is something we can see,' said the flight commander, Lt. Alban, whose surname was withheld by the French military for security reasons. 'We can have a very close look with our sensors to see what is happening.' Burrows reported from London. AP journalists Jill Lawless in London, David Klepper in Washington and Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, contributed to this report.
Los Angeles Times
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
At least 11 Baltic undersea cables have been damaged in 15 months, prompting NATO to up its guard
ABOARD A FRENCH NAVY FLIGHT OVER THE BALTIC SEA — With its powerful camera, the French navy surveillance plane scouring the Baltic Sea zoomed in on a cargo ship plowing the waters below — closer, closer and closer still until the camera operator could make out details on the vessel's front deck and smoke pouring from its funnel. The long-range Atlantique 2 aircraft on a new mission for NATO then shifted its high-tech gaze onto another target, and another after that until, after more than five hours on patrol, the plane's array of sensors had scoped out the bulk of the Baltic — from Germany in the west to Estonia in the northeast, bordering Russia. The flight's mere presence in the skies above the strategic sea last week, combined with military ships patrolling on the waters, also sent an unmistakable message: The NATO alliance is ratcheting up its guard against suspected attempts to sabotage underwater energy and data cables and pipelines that crisscross the Baltic, prompted by a growing catalog of incidents that have damaged them. 'We will do everything in our power to make sure that we fight back, that we are able to see what is happening and then take the next steps to make sure that it doesn't happen again. And our adversaries should know this,' NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said this month in announcing a new alliance mission, dubbed Baltic Sentry, to protect the underwater infrastructure vital to the economic well-being of Baltic-region nations. Power and communications cables and gas pipelines stitch together the nine countries with shores on the Baltic, a relatively shallow and nearly landlocked sea. A few examples are the 94-mile Baltic connector pipeline that carries gas between Finland and Estonia, the high-voltage Baltic Cable connecting the power grids of Sweden and Germany, and the 729-mile C-Lion1 telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany. Undersea pipes and cables help power economies, keep houses warm and connect billions of people. More than 807,800 miles of fiber optic cables — more than enough to stretch to the moon and back — span the world's oceans and seas, according to TeleGeography, which tracks and maps the vital communication networks. The cables are typically the width of a garden hose. But 97% of the world's communications, including trillions of dollars of financial transactions, pass through them each day. 'In the last two months alone, we have seen damage to a cable connecting Lithuania and Sweden, another connecting Germany and Finland, and most recently, a number of cables linking Estonia and Finland. Investigations of all of these cases are still ongoing. But there is reason for grave concern,' Rutte said on Jan. 14. At least 11 Baltic cables have been damaged since October 2023 — the most recent being a fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland, reported to have ruptured on Sunday. Although cable operators note that subsea cable damage is commonplace, the frequency and concentration of incidents in the Baltic heightened suspicions that the damage might have been deliberate. There are fears that Russia could target cables as part of a wider campaign of so-called hybrid warfare to destabilize European nations helping Ukraine defend itself against the full-scale invasion that Moscow has been pursuing since 2022. Without specifically blaming Russia, Rutte said: 'Hybrid [warfare] means sabotage. Hybrid means cyberattacks. Hybrid means sometimes even assassination attacks, attempts, and in this case, it means hitting on our critical undersea infrastructure.' Finnish police suspect that the Eagle S, an oil tanker that damaged the Estlink 2 power cable and two other communications cables linking Finland and Estonia on Dec. 25, is part of Moscow's 'shadow fleet' used to avoid war-related sanctions on Russian oil exports. Finnish authorities seized the tanker shortly after it left a Russian port and allegedly cut the cables by dragging its anchor. Finnish investigators say the ship left an almost 62-mile long anchor trail on the seabed. But several Western intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of their work, told the Associated Press that recent damage was most likely accidental, seemingly caused by anchors being dragged by ships that were poorly maintained and poorly crewed. One senior intelligence official told the AP that ships' logs and mechanical failures with ships' anchors were among 'multiple indications' pointing away from Russian sabotage. The official said Russian cables were also severed. Another Western official, also speaking anonymously to discuss intelligence matters, said Russia sent an intelligence-gathering vessel to the site of one cable rupture to investigate the damage. The Washington Post first reported on the emerging consensus among U.S. and European security services that maritime accidents, rather than deliberate sabotage, likely caused recent damage. The European Subsea Cables Assn., representing cable owners and operators, noted in November after faults were reported on two Baltic links that, on average, a subsea cable is damaged somewhere in the world every three days. In northern European waters, the main causes of damage are commercial fishing or ship anchors, it said. In the rupture Sunday of the fiber-optic cable connecting Latvia and Sweden, Swedish authorities detained a Maltese-flagged ship bound for South America with a cargo of fertilizer. Navibulgar, a Bulgarian company that owns the vessel, said any damage was unintentional and that the ship's crew discovered while navigating in extremely bad weather that its left anchor appeared to have dragged on the seabed. The alliance is deploying warships, maritime patrol aircraft and naval drones for the mission to provide 'enhanced surveillance and deterrence.' Aboard the French navy surveillance flight last week, the 14-member crew cross-checked ships they spotted from the air against lists of vessels they had been ordered to watch for. 'If we witness some suspicious activities from ships as sea — for example, ships at very low speed or at anchorage in a position that they shouldn't be at this time — so this is something we can see,' said the flight commander, Lt. Alban, whose surname was withheld by the French military for security reasons. 'We can have a very close look with our sensors to see what is happening.' Leicester and Burrows write for the Associated Press. Burrows reported from London. AP journalists Jill Lawless in London, David Klepper in Washington and Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, contributed to this report.
