France s most senior naval commander has said future conflicts are likely to be fought at sea and in cybersphere, citing the rapid rearmament of countries such as China as a potential threat.
Admiral Pierre Vandier said after the French Marine Nationale and forces from five allied countries took part in a unique two-week exercise designed to prepare for composite threats. Political and diplomatic relations between London and Paris fell to a new low after Australia cancelled a contract to buy French submarines and signed a joint security pact with the UK and US to buy American vessels, but defence links between the two countries remain firm.
Lt. Commander Duncan Abbott, the only Royal Navy officer aboard the French aircraft carrier for Polaris 21, said he had seen no post-Aukus tensions.
There are many exchange officers like me who work with the other military, and there are inextricable ties between the French and the UK. The relationships are carried out day to day on a personal level and there has been no change, he said.
Vandier said in an address to crew and journalists aboard the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, the flagship of the French fleet, as the Polaris exercise came to an end, as the naval forces involved in conflicts have taken place mainly on land, as in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
Today, the maritime environment is challenged by submarines, cyber-attacks, space attacks and a naval war itself. Our mission is to understand these factors in an operational setting. Vandier said the forced march to expand certain navies he would not name in the Mediterranean - clearly understood to be Russia and China in the Pacific were the main threats.
Today we are seeing the growth of navies to two or three times what they were. He said that the Chinese navy has seen a tripling in the past 10 years so that it now surpasses the US navy.
The rapidity of international rearmament was creating chaos and playing with the keystone of international stability hesaid. We cannot wait until it s too late, we cannot be taken by surprise, we have to prove our credibility. If we want to be respected in an unrestricted, uncertain world, we have to show our pugnacity. We have to prepare for combat in all situations. Polaris 21, one of the biggest international sea exercises, involved 6,000 military personnel from six countries -- all Nato allies and half the French navy in the simulation of a high-intensity battle for the control of occupied territory.
Twenty-four battleships took part, including vessels from the US, Italy, Spain, Greece and the Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon, as well as French land and air forces. Those who participated were divided into two enemy camps and engaged in an intense six-day battle in real time controlled by Charles de Gaulle.
At one point there was a blackout of satellite communication for 24 hours leaving forces to operate in what officers described as a fog of war. It was a return to the 1980s, said one officer in charge of coordinating flights. We had no idea where the enemy was. The crew was ordered to turn off their mobile phones to avoid being traced. A ship could be tracked if a single sailor misrepresented one of their applications, officers said.
Today, warfare has become completely composite even at the tactical level. Vandier said that the digital traces we leave are tools for the combatants.
Emerand, a fighter pilot, said the 16 day exercise had been intense. Two squadrons of the jets were repeatedly scrambled without notice as they were in a real combat and a simulated mission took place to rescue an ejected fighter pilot from enemy territory.
He said it was a unique exercise over a large area and for a long time. As well as testing our own capacities, it sent the message of what we and our allies can do. It allowed us to see our capacity to react against an enemy that is as well armed or better armed than us. In June, both the UK aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and Charles de Gaulle took part in the Exercise Gallic Strike in the western Mediterranean, showing how the two navies could work together.
Abbott, who is on detachment to the Marine Nationale at the Naval base in Toulon, said Polaris had tested the French navy's plug and fight capabilities, meaning the ability to integrate non-French forces into a national deployment.
The whole purpose of the exercise was to look at fighting in a high-intensity situation, to test the French and allied units' capacity to respond to unpredictable and different threats in an agile way. We learned that a ship like HMS Dragon could have been integrated. He said it was a really useful training opportunity.
It was about fighting above, on and under the water. The Marine Nationale and the Royal Navy are similar in many ways, including size and how we operate.