France has been sending navy ships
to the contested South China Sea (SCS) and East China Seas as a pushback against China
and also against North Korean smuggling.
French missions in the Pacific, from November 2020 to February 2021, included the (NATO designation French Ship (FS)) Emeraude (a Rubis-class SSN) and its support ship FS Seine.
Also Pacific based (homeport Tahiti) Floreal-class frigate FS Prairial will patrol the East China Sea from March 2021, against ship-to-ship smuggling involving North Korea.
The amphibious warfare LHD Tonnerre is in the middle. Stealth frigate Surcouf (with its smooth radar deflecting sides) is on Tonnerre's bow. In the foreground is a Greek Navy Hydra-class frigate
Spetsai (F-453). (Photo courtesy French Navy via India's RepublicWorld.)
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From February 2021 to early July 2021 the French Mistral-class LHD FS Tonnerre and the stealthy La Fayette-class frigate FS Surcouf will patrol the SCS.
[As an aside, the frigate Surcouf has been a luckier ship than the doomed heavy artillery submarine Surcouf of WWII.]
Along the way Tonnerre and Surcouf will exercise with the Indian, Australian, Japanese and US navies in support of the Quad security dialogue.
JS Tonnerre and Surcouf are now traveling from France, through the Suez Canal, Indian Ocean, to the Pacific. On the way they will visit Egypt, Djibouti, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Japan, before returning to France in July 2021.
8 comments:
By running active MN naval assets so close to a known bastion of PLAN SSBNs, the French are signalling that in the event a nuclear war or conflict of last resort, they will fall-in with the Americans.
Hi retortPouch
Thanks for your comment.
So the "MN" = Marine Nationale = French Navy, is running its naval assets "close to a known bastion of PLAN SSBNs".
Do you mean that the "bastion" is the South China Sea generally
or are French Navy vessels sailing close to the Hainan SSBN Base https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yulin_Naval_Base itself?
Regards
Pete
Hello
Ship in the foreground is not a Prairial class. That ship has two CIWS Phallanx, which are not in service in our Navy
Regards
Thanks retortPouch
I Goggle searched the photo at other sites, coming up with:
"GREEK and French vessels sail in formation during a joint military exercise in Mediterranean sea." https://www.rfi.fr/en/europe/20200815-turkey-accuses-france-of-bullying-in-mediterranean-gas-exploration-spat
So looking for a Greek ship in the foreground, I located a match. The foreground ship is a Greek Hydra-class frigate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra-class_frigate
And its ship number on the bow is "F453" making it the Spetsai https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_frigate_Spetsai
Regards
Pete
the french attempted 'fonops' will mean nothing to China. In the near future, the place will be crawling with UUVs in addition to the substantial Chinese 'SOSUS' already installed in the first island chain...the SCS is a chinese lake defacto...plus the likely new SSBN base near FCR or Fiery Cross Reef dang in the middle of the Sulu sea in what is the deepest area of the SCS will mean AIP bearing Type-039 SSKs that are already available in huge numbers, can screw any SSN/SSK venturing into the SCS as rest of the SCS is very shallow.
https://www.icsin.org/uploads/2019/11/05/8bf56604ba2e84aef8f30d35edbb937f.pdf
Also, given the noisy screws of the SSBNs (even the upcoming 96s are allegedly not so silent), the FCR is likely a 'new bastion' for SSBNs and is likely to be defended like She-King Cobra defending her nest of eggs....good luck for any french/japanese/US ships in a 300 nautical mile zone near the isles..
so, these mistral class ships or the suffren SSNs are unlikely to make the chinese 'excited'...
Also, while French military self reliance will help them sustain some global influence...over the next few decades French economic strength is likely to decline slowly but steadily in comparison to the global pie that might still grow slowly... frankly by 2060, the UNSC membership of UK and France might get replaced by one EU seat and one for one of the following Brazil/India/any other contender (if India is again partitioned by 2045-2050 then India is off the contender list)
Hi GhalibKabir
@Feb 24, 2021 3:02 PM
I think the USN and other advanced navies can always counter such Chinese UUV/SOSUS deployments in the SCS by the USN using its own future UUVs and USVs to jam/”noise out” Chinese UUVs/SOSUS.
I’m not convinced China’s would want to build “new SSBN base” on an SCS micro-island. Also the logistical support backup, needed for an SSBN base (including SLBM maintenance and storage) is a big strategic vulnerability on an SCS micro island.
Furthermore wouldn’t China simply be duplicating its established Hainan/Yulin SSBN Base which borders the SCS?
I’m guessing that if China were to build another SSBN base it would be outside the strategic confines of the East CS and SCS.
China could not simply dismiss new, highly advertised French SSN and large surface ship activity in the SCS. Maintaining Chinese Navy and regime “face” on the PR level is important.
UN P5
The UNSC P5 has been a very unchanging institution for 70+ years (aside from Taiwan out, PRC in). This is even though India and Brazil have been pressing for entry for decades.
China (as it moves to superpower economic and strategic status) can even more strongly veto India’s entry.
Meanwhile the US would not willingly see its French and UK NATO allies cast out from the P5 or diluted by Indian, Brazilian entry.
On a more positive note thanks for spotting https://www.icsin.org/uploads/2019/11/05/8bf56604ba2e84aef8f30d35edbb937f.pdf looks like good reading.
Cheers
Pete
Pete@Feb 25, 2021, 12:09:00 PM
The UN is unchanged because India or Brazil or Germany or Japan do not have the muscle needed to push in...plus US will not burn political capital to do the necessary thing too.
china i am sure will do everything and I mean anything to thwart india (incl. the 'small cyberattack demonstration' of shutting down Mumbai's power grid last year during the Ladakh clashes)...it will not be willing to give one ounce...Nehru's idiotic gesture of turning down an alleged P-5 'invite' and clapping in china will extract its full price before anything happens...remember how much china made India struggle for the NSG waiver in 2008 (just waiver not membership)...P-5 and NSG won't happen anytime soon...
However, 20-30 years is a long span of time and given the british brexit harakiri and probable oncoming French economic stagnation in comparison to a growing global economy.... one never knows what might happen...If scotland leaves then the truly rump UK's P-5 slot will be untenable...also Russia...that Russki depopulation thingy will be far more serious by 2045-50....I cannot shake the feeling that humanity is going to go off on another round of needless but horrendous violence sometime in the next 2-3 decades...
Hi GhalibKabir
@your Mar 1, 2021, 5:51:00 PM
Yep the existing P5 don't want to dilute their special status (including Legal Nuclear Weapons Power) by allowing in newcomers. Those major none-P5ers shouldn't have "lost (Basil Fawlty) the war anyway". And Nehru shouldn't have been so non-alighned? by knocking back an invite.
That said, with India soon to have the equal to or highest population in the world (around 1.5 bil) and it already has nukes - should have the right to be in the P5.
Even in 20-30 years time I don't think the US would risk a P5 membership without France or UK. Most upsetting for Uncle would be a P4 or P5 including Russia, China, unpredictable? India and especially not with Brazil.
A Brazil with a Legal nuclear weapons "prize" of being in the P5, setting off a race with Argentina (building illegal nuclear weapons) would upset the US's Western Hemisphere doctrine a tad.
So I think we can "watch this P5 space" with slow expectations. Paint drying faster.
Cheers
Pete
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