Swiss Army Exercises - Invaded by France?

Look, every exercise needs a premise, and when you have no real enemies, sometimes you just make up weird stuff and go with it.

A bankrupt France tears itself apart into several regions, and one of them marches over the border to Switzerland to get back its stolen money. The Swiss army has this imaginary scenario covered, according to military simulations revealed over the weekend.

Switzerland's army simulated a French attack against their country in training exercises in August, the newspaper Matin Dimanche revealed on Sunday.

The army imagined a scenario in which France was in financial turmoil and had split up into several regional entities.

One of these, "Saônia," was preparing attacks on Switzerland to retrieve money it had apparently stolen from it.

By: Brant

AQIM Leaves Vital Document Behind in Rapid Retreat

The AP has a great article talking about an Al Qaeda 'manifesto' that was left behind in Timbuktu and discovered by one of their reporters.

In their hurry to flee last month, al-Qaida fighters left behind a crucial document: Tucked under a pile of papers and trash is a confidential letter, spelling out the terror network's strategy for conquering northern Mali and reflecting internal discord over how to rule the region.

The document is an unprecedented window into the terrorist operation, indicating that al-Qaida predicted the military intervention that would dislodge it in January and recognized its own vulnerability.

The letter also shows a sharp division within al-Qaida's Africa chapter over how quickly and how strictly to apply Islamic law, with its senior commander expressing dismay over the whipping of women and the destruction of Timbuktu's ancient monuments. It moreover leaves no doubt that despite a temporary withdrawal into the desert, al-Qaida plans to operate in the region over the long haul, and is willing to make short-term concessions on ideology to gain the allies it acknowledges it needs.

The more than nine-page document, found by The Associated Press in a building occupied by the Islamic extremists for almost a year, is signed by Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, the nom de guerre of Abdelmalek Droukdel, the senior commander appointed by Osama bin Laden to run al-Qaida's branch in Africa. The clear-headed, point-by-point assessment resembles a memo from a CEO to his top managers and lays out for his jihadists in Mali what they have done wrong in months past, and what they need to do to correct their behavior in the future.

Droukdel, the emir of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, perhaps surprisingly argues that his fighters moved too fast and too brutally in applying the Islamic law known as Shariah to northern Mali. Comparing the relationship of al-Qaida to Mali as that of an adult to an infant, he urges them to be more gentle, like a parent:

There's a lot more at the link.

By: Brant

Mali Military Mutiny Makes Muddied Messages

Paratroopers in Mali are are mutinying in Bamako.

Malian government soldiers fought mutinous paratroops in the capital Bamako on Friday in a clash that threatened to undermine a French-led military operation to drive al Qaeda-allied Islamist rebels from the north.
Local residents fled in panic as heavy gunfire echoed from the Djikoroni-Para paratrooper base on the Niger River in western Bamako as Malian army units with armored vehicles surrounded the camp.
Smoke rose from the base, where mutinous members of the 'red beret' paratroop unit loyal to deposed Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure started firing with their weapons to protest attempts to reassign some of them, Malian officers said.
At least one person was killed, state media reported.
The clash between forces loyal to Mali's current rulers and the Toure partisans revealed splits in the armed forces still lingering after a military coup in March that plunged the previously stable West African state into chaos.
The coup resulted in Tuareg rebels seizing the north in a revolt later hijacked by Islamist radicals. Mali is Africa's third-largest gold producer after Ghana and South Africa.
The Bamako fighting pointed to serious weaknesses in the Malian state which could set back the rapid military gains made by France's four-week-old military intervention in north Mali, which has driven Islamist insurgents from the major urban areas.

Somewhere on the front lines, the French are thinking "WTF?"

By: Brant

View Larger Map

French Paratroopers in Mali

Action footage




h/t Rex

By: Brant

French Going All the Way to Timbuktu

French & Mali forces have taken Timbuktu back from the AQ-linked rebels.

French and Malian troops were on Sunday restoring government control over the fabled Saharan trading town of Timbuktu, the latest gain in a fast-moving French-led offensive against al Qaeda-allied fighters occupying northern Mali.
The Islamist militant rebels have pulled back northwards to avoid relentless French air strikes that have destroyed their bases, vehicles and weapons, allowing French and Malian troops to advance rapidly with air support and armored vehicles.
A Malian military source told Reuters the French and Malian forces reached "the gates of Timbuktu" late on Saturday without meeting resistance from the Islamist insurgents who had held the town since last year.
The advancing troops were working on securing the town, a UNESCO World Heritage site and labyrinth of ancient mosques and monuments and mud-brick homes, ready to flush out any Islamist fighters who might still be hiding among the population.
"Timbuktu is delicate, you can't just go in like that," the source, who asked not to be named, said.
On Saturday, the French-Malian offensive recaptured Gao, which along with Timbuktu was one of three major northern towns occupied last year by Tuareg and Islamist rebels who included fighters from al Qaeda's North Africa wing AQIM.

By: Brant

The French Can Screw Up Almost Anything

One of the most bad-ass pics of a French guy on operations goes viral, and their leadership complains about it. Oy. You'd think that a picture of the French kicking ass would be a good thing.

click to enlarge

The soldiers pulled on their goggles to protect their eyes from the dust. One soldier pulled up a black bandana -- with a white skeleton face printed on it -- over his nose. Behind him, light beamed through tree branches, creating an otherworldly image -- the soldier looked like a skeleton in French military fatigues. Photographer Issouf Sanogo of the Agence France-Presse news agency and Yann Foreix of Le Parisien were drawn to the soldier, whom they photographed. The bandana is an accessory sold for fans of the violent military game “Call of Duty.” At first glance, the soldier bears eerie resemblance the character Ghost from the video game. French military officials aren’t happy about the image, according to newspaper Liberation in Paris. “This is unacceptable behavior,” said Col. Thierry Burkhard. “This image is not representative of action by France in Mali.”

By: Brant

Another French Casualty From Somalia Raid?

The Somali rebels claim that a second French commando died of wounds sustained in the raid.

A second French commando has died from wounds in Somalia after a failed attempt at the weekend to rescue a French agent held hostage by al Shabaab since 2009, the Somalian rebel group said on Monday.
The al-Qaeda linked group also maintained that the hostage, Denis Allex, who France says it believes was killed during the operation, was still alive.
The militants put up fierce resistance when French special forces went into southern Somalia by helicopter under the cover of darkness on Saturday to try to free Allex.
There was some confusion over the exact outcome of the mission, with the French government saying at one point that one commando had died and the other gone missing and later saying that both appeared to be dead.
"The second commando died from his bullet wounds. We shall display the bodies of the two Frenchmen," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for al Shabaab's military operations, told Reuters by telephone.
Allex's fate would be decided later, he said.

By: Brant

Random Friday Wargaming: FAR 90

Yes, there are are wargames published in foreign languages... and a lot of them in French. FAR 90 was published in Casus Belli magazine and can be a challenge to track down.







There's no CSW forum. There's no entry at Grognards.com. There's an entry at iSimulacrum, but only insofar in that the game exists. Has anyone out there had their hooks in this one? And what did you think?

Personally, I'm curious about the countermix. There's a set of green counters that look like they're a 51st Brigade and a 53rd Brigade. I'm wondering if the green units are Germans, or if they're Americans. It's interesting because in a lot of US training materials, there's a 53rd Armored Brigade as a hypothetical higher headquarters that does not exist anywhere on the rolls, but is used just for training purposes. Did FAR 90 adopt this hypothetical unit? Or is it referring to something completely different?


Master links/images from Boardgamegeek.com; message boards linked to Consimworld. Other links to the actual game pages...


By: Brant

Arming Vichy France?

An interesting archival moment uncovered by the BBC...

A British general kept Winston Churchill and Free French leader Charles De Gaulle in the dark about a top secret 1942 plan to arm Vichy France, recently discovered documents reveal.

Both Churchill and De Gaulle had made clear their contempt for Marshall Petain's regime, which controlled a large part of France thanks to a deal struck with Hitler.

Relations between Britain and France had been strained since July 1940, when Churchill, who was determined to stop French ships falling into German hands, ordered the Royal Navy to sink several French war ships off the coast of Algeria - 1,300 French sailors lost their lives in the action.

In retaliation, a furious Vichy not only broke off diplomatic relations with London but also bombed Gibraltar.

In December 1941, Winston Churchill made clear his distaste for the supposedly neutral Vichy regime and its often enthusiastic collaboration with Hitler.


Later, Vichy voluntarily deported Jews to Germany.

Charles De Gaulle was equally contemptuous. Vichy's leaders had accused him of being a traitor when he fled to London after the fall of France. At the time, Marshal Petain, a hero of World War I, was a more popular figure in France - many saw him as having shielded Vichy from the worst excesses of Hitler's forces and saved the region from German occupation.

By: Brant

h/t Rex @ PaxSims

Sound Off! Germany vs France!

(We ran this last summer, and it was a very rare "Sound Off!" that had no comments, so we're re-running it)

Last time we asked you to sound off on military heritgae, we asked Canada vs Australia....

This time, we want you to give us the better military heritage:

Germany?
France?

State your case in the comments below!

By: Brant

Europe Continually Awaiting US to Ride to Their Rescue

The Economist ran this column a whole back, but it's still worth discussing that Europe has been more than happy to let the US lead with their military and their wallet, and that in the long-term, that's unsustainable.

...if the European taxpayers do not want to pay to preserve their own security, why should Americans shoulder the burden? Only five of the 28 NATO allies meet NATO’s recommendation that countries should spend at least 2% of GDP on defence: America, Britain, France, Greece and Albania. Today America’s key security interests are in the Middle East and in Asia. Europe will be the obvious place for America to cut expensive overseas commitments.

Europe has more soldiers than America, but can deploy far fewer of them on overseas operations. This is partly the result of history: in the cold war European armies were built to hold the line in Europe, while awaiting reinforcement by American forces which, by definition, had to be designed for expeditionary warfare. Another is that “Europe” is not a sovereign state, but a collection of small- and medium-sized countries. Its considerable defence spending is hoplessly fragmented among a multitude of armies, air forces and navies.

Specialisation, pooling and sharing equipment is the obvious way forward. Defence experts across Europe have known this for a long time and, here and there, countries have embarked on some important experiments. A recent paper by the Centre for European Reform, and think-tank in London, makes some sensible recommendations (PDF). But what is rational in terms of defence accounting too often falls foul of political and operational reality. Many smaller countries have little interest in international commitments. And the bigger states that still retain some kind of global vision, like Britain and France, do not want to be dependent on smaller states for their military capability.

By: Brant

UK In Action: French Coordination

A French soldier (left) with the Armee de Terre, is pictured briefing British soldiers during the first ever joint military exercise between the two nations at CENZUB the French Urban Centre in Sisonne, France. Members of 1st Battalion The Coldstream Guards are the first British soldiers to engage in tactical level training with the French Army since the announcement of the UK-France Defence Cooperation Treaty on 2 November 2010. Some 130 soldiers from the battalion’s Number 1 Company and attached personnel from 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh, The London Regiment and 5 Medical Regiment travelled to the French Urban Centre (CENZUB), where French forces conduct their Operations in Built-up Areas training (OBUA). Exercise GAULISH, which took place between 21 March and 1 April was an opportunity to conduct joint Company-level training and represented the first steps towards the long-term aim of bilateral cooperation between the British and French armies at all levels.

img from UK MoD

By: Widow 6-7

"Covert" Guys on the Ground in Libya?

Who was on the ground helping the rebels in Libya ?

As the battle in Libya appeared at stalemate, it was an open secret that foreign military advisers were working covertly inside the country providing guidance to rebels and giving tactical intelligence to NATO aircraft bombing government forces.
Diplomats say members of the alliance and partners in the Middle East were engaged in an undercover campaign on the ground in Libya. The operation was kept separate from the NATO command structure to avoid compromising its mandate from the United Nations — to protect civilians.
These largely unseen supporters helped to transform the ragtag rebel army into the force that stormed Tripoli.
On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe acknowledged the presence of the advisers, telling Europe-1 radio that France had contributed "a few instructors" to train rebel fighters.

This couldn't have been a real secret, right?

By: Brant

Anniversary: The Farewell Dossier

30 years ago today, French President François Mitterrand made the Farewell Dossier known to President Reagan. Wikipedia's summary is pretty basic and factual:

The Farewell Dossier was the collection of documents which Colonel Vladimir Vetrov, a KGB defector (code-named "Farewell") gathered and gave to the French DST in 1981–82, during the Cold War.

An engineer, Vetrov had been assigned to evaluate information on Western hardware and software gathered by spies ("Line X") for Directorate T, the directorate for scientific and technical intelligence collection from the West. He became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist system and decided to work with the French at the end of 1980. Between the spring of 1981 and early 1982, Vetrov gave almost 4,000 secret documents to the DST, including the complete list of 250 Line X officers stationed under legal cover in embassies around the world.

Western nations undertook a mass expulsion of Soviet technology spies. The CIA also mounted a counter-intelligence operation that transferred modified hardware and software designs to the Soviets. Thomas Reed alleged this was the cause of a spectacular trans-Siberian pipeline disaster in 1982.

Vetrov's story inspired Bonjour Farewell: La vérité sur la taupe française du KGB (1997) by Serguei Kostine. It was adapted loosely for the French film L'affaire Farewell (2009) starring Emir Kusturica and Guillaume Canet.

The more extended article in the Central Intelligence Agency archives gives a much deeper history, as well as some of the deeper operations.

As was later reported in Aviation Week and Space Technology, CIA and the Defense Department, in partnership with the FBI, set up a program to do just what we had discussed: modified products were devised and "made available" to Line X collection channels. The CIA project leader and his associates studied the Farewell material, examined export license applications and other intelligence, and contrived to introduce altered products into KGB collection. American industry helped in the preparation of items to be "marketed" to Line X. Contrived computer chips found their way into Soviet military equipment, flawed turbines were installed on a gas pipeline, and defective plans disrupted the output of chemical plants and a tractor factory. The Pentagon introduced misleading information pertinent to stealth aircraft, space defense, and tactical aircraft.(4) The Soviet Space Shuttle was a rejected NASA design.(5) When Casey told President Reagan of the undertaking, the latter was enthusiastic. In time, the project proved to be a model of interagency cooperation, with the FBI handling domestic requirements and CIA responsible for overseas operations. The program had great success, and it was never detected.

In a further use of the Farewell product, Casey sent the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence to Europe to tell NATO governments and intelligence services of the Line X threat. These meetings led to the expulsion or compromise of about 200 Soviet intelligence officers and their sources, causing the collapse of Line X operations in Europe. Although some military intelligence officers avoided compromise, the heart of Soviet technology collection crumbled and would not recover. This mortal blow came just at the beginning of Reagan's defense buildup, his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), and the introduction of stealth aircraft into US forces.

Or, as William Safire reported in the New York Times...

Weiss said: ''Why not help the Soviets with their shopping? Now that we know what they want, we can help them get it.'' The catch: computer chips would be designed to pass Soviet quality tests and then to fail in operation.

By: Brant

French Running Guns in Libya?

Oh, OK, I get it. It's not OK when Tim Spicer runs weapons to the legitimate government of Sierra Leone, but it's OK for France to airlift weapons to Libyan rebels, both in defiance of embargoes. Wait. Maybe I don't get it.

France has defended its move to airlift weapons to Libya's rebels, saying it did not break a U.N. arms embargo because they were needed to defend civilians under threat.
France on Wednesday became the first NATO country to openly acknowledge arming rebels seeking to topple Muammar Gaddafi, who has so far resisted a three-month-old bombing campaign that has strained alliance and rebel firepower.
The bombing is backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing force to protect civilians, but Britain, France and the United States say they will not stop until Gaddafi falls.
Citing unnamed sources, Le Figaro newspaper said France had parachuted rocket launchers, assault rifles, machine guns and anti-tank missiles into the Western Mountains in early June.
A French military spokesman confirmed delivery of arms, prompting some U.N. diplomats to argue that such transfers without consent of the U.N. Security Council's Libya sanctions committee could violate the embargo.
"We decided to provide self-defensive weapons to the civilian populations because we consider that these populations were under threat," French Ambassador to the United Nations Gerard Araud told reporters.

By: Brant

Royal Navy Pilots Learning To Speak French

The recent agreement between Britain and France to share an aircraft carrier means that some Royal Navy pilots must learn French in order to operate off the Charles de Gaulle. Who woulda thunk it?!

The first five of 30 Royal Navy pilots have begun French language training at the defence college in Paris before they join the carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, where they will fly Rafale jets.

They will spend 16 weeks studying French so that they are able to communicate with their colleagues on board the vessel.

While they will wear their own uniforms they will sleep, eat and work alongside French fighter pilots, in what has been described as a major test of co-operation for the two Navies.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “The relationship with France is strategically important and discussions are ongoing about Royal Navy personnel being based on Charles de Gaulle as part of the bilateral agreement between our two countries. This will allow us to maintain our skills and help to develop an enhanced capability in the future.”

By: Shelldrake

Getting Closer to the Libyans

The Brits and French are now targeting the Libyan government military with attack helicopters.

British Apache and French attack helicopters struck targets for the first time in NATO's campaign in Libya, hitting Moammar Gadhafi's troops early Saturday near a key coastal oil city, the alliance said.
The action was a significant step-up in NATO's operations and a major boost to Libyan rebels on the ground, just a day after rebel fighters forced government troops from three western towns and broke the siege of a fourth in yet another erosion of Gadhafi's power since the eruption in mid-February of the uprising to end his 42-year rule.
NATO said the helicopters struck Gadhafi troops attempting to hide in populated areas, military vehicles and equipment. Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, commander of the Libya operation, said the engagement "demonstrates the unique capabilities brought to bear by attack helicopters."
The Apaches hit two targets near the coastal city of Brega, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense in London. It said they took off from HMS Ocean, stationed off the Libyan coast and returned safely after completing their mission in the early morning hours.

By: Brant

The Brits'll Get An Aircraft Carrier Afloat... Eventually

Well, I guess the Brits will get an aircraft carrier back on the seas by 2020.

Defence secretary Liam Fox was on the Clyde to cut the first steel for HMS Prince of Wales, the second of the Royal Navy's two Queen Elizabeth class carriers.

Dr Fox started the computer-guided laser to cut the first piece of hull for the ship at a ceremony at the BAE Systems shipyard in Govan.

After the symbolic ceremony, Dr Fox told the workers the government was committed to delivering this next generation of powerful British aircraft carriers, which will form the cornerstone of the navy's Future Force 2020.

"This major construction project is creating and sustaining thousands of jobs in shipyards around the country," he added.

After attending the event, Dunfermline and West Fife MP Thomas Docherty told The Courier, "It is another milestone on the road to completion of the two aircraft carriers.

"Obviously I am delighted to begin to see the Queen Elizabeth carriers taking shape in Govan and more crucially at Rosyth."

He said not only would the carriers guarantee employment for Rosyth until 2020 at least, but they were of great benefit to the UK.

In the meantime, the pride of the French navy is doing the heavy lifting of Libya.

By: Brant

The Endgame in Libya Led By... France?

There's a compelling argument over at Small Wars Journal about why France will finish off Gaddafi.

Let’s make something clear, the civil war in Libya will not end in a stalemate. The French will likely intervene with ground forces and topple the Gaddafi regime, and they will probably do it within a month. It is quite possible that they will do so with Italian help. President Obama has fervently wished for America to be just one of the boys; in the end, this may be a case of wishing for something so much that you get it. America has abrogated the role of global marshal that it assumed after World War II. Every posse needs a Marshal to lead it. The French will likely pick up the tin star they found lying in the street of the global village.

When General Petraeus asked the famous question, “tell me how this ends?” early in the Iraq war, he was signaling unease about launching conflicts with no clear idea of how the world should look after the fighting stopped; the military calls this an “end state”. When he had a chance to do something about it, Petraeus as a caveat for assuming command in Iraq, insisted that the civilian side of the government craft a clear end state and give him adequate forces to pursue it. By the 2008 election, both candidates were promising never again to get us involved in an open ended conflict. Fast forward to 2011, where we have embarked on a military campaign with no clear strategic objective other than to “do something”; having done something that is clearly not enough, the administration seems at a loss. At this point, we have a strategic leadership vacuum, and the French will probably fill it.

poll by twiigs.com

By: Brant

Just *Who* Is Shooting?

I love this headline: U.N. and French helicopters attack Gbagbo forces...

Here's the start of the accompanying article

U.N. and French helicopters attacked forces loyal to Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo overnight into Monday, damaging the presidential residence in Abidjan and destroying heavy weapons that U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon ordered silenced.
Gbagbo refused to step down after his rival Alassane Ouattara won last November's presidential election, according to results certified by the United Nations, reigniting a civil war that has claimed more than a thousand lives and uprooted a million people.
Helicopter attacks a week ago on Gbagbo's heavy weapons by the United Nations and France appeared to bring Gbagbo's forces to the point of surrender, but they used a lull in fighting to regroup before taking more ground in Abidjan.

So here's my question: who is providing the "UN" helicopters? The UN does not - AFAIK - own any of their own armed helicopters; they get them all from their member nations. So who provided these?

By: Brant