News about FRANCE

[Lisa LoveParticipant]

France takes anti-drone measures after flight over nuclear submarine base

An anti-drone and search operation was launched after five drones were detected over a base that houses France’s nuclear deterrent submarines off its northwestern coast on Thursday evening.

The French military used anti-drone measures after five unmanned vehicles flew over a closely guarded base housing nuclear ballistic submarines, a source told AFP Friday.

The drones were detected above the base on Ile Longue, a peninsula off the Brittany coast in northwestern France, at around 7:30pm Thursday, said the source close to the operation.

The base is the home port of France’s four nuclear ballistic missile submarines – Le Triomphant, Le Téméraire, Le Vigilant and Le Terrible.

An anti-drone and search operation was launched by the marine battalion, which protects the base, the source said. It was not immediately clear what those measures entailed.

A judicial investigation into Thursday’s incident was to be opened by the military prosecutor’s office in Rennes, the Atlantic Maritime Prefecture said.

“Sensitive infrastructure was not threatened,” said Guillaume Le Rasle, spokesperson for the maritime prefecture.

He said it was “too early to determine” the origin of the drones, adding however that those flights were “intended to cause concern among the population”.

No drones were shot down and no pilots were identified during the flyover of the base housing France’s nuclear deterrent submarines in the harbour of Brest, the Rennes public prosecutor’s office said on Friday.

“No link with foreign interference has therefore been established,” said Prosecutor Frédéric Teillet, adding that the marines had “fired a jammer and not a firearm”.

Russia has been blamed for a number of airspace violations, notably in Estonia and Poland. On Tuesday, the German government launched an anti-drone police unit in response to multiple drone incursions at strategic sites observed in recent months.

Concerns are growing that such disruptions could be part of Russian hybrid war tactics three-and-a-half years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is backed by the European Union.

Detecting the drones, making them non-operational by jamming them, or even shooting them down, are all complex and hazardous tasks. And while Russian involvement is suspected, it is difficult to prove.

France and the United Kingdom are the only European countries other than Russia with nuclear weapons.

France has maintained a sea-based nuclear deterrent force since 1971.

The Ile Longue base is home to France’s four ballistic missile submarines, at least one of which is permanently at sea to ensure nuclear deterrence.

Drone flights in the restricted area are not uncommon, according to Le Rasle who said, “there are precedents”.

On the night of November 17 to 18, a drone flight over the Crozon peninsula, which includes Ile Longue, was reported, but no military installations were flown over.

0

0

[Author]

Posts