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Latin
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Number 6 - 2013
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the country, dramatically raising the risk
of creating a terrorist state in the heart
of West Africa. As French Defence Minis
ter Jean-Yves Le Drian said upon ope
ning the hostilities in Paris, the potential
upshot was to witness the erection of
"a
terrorist state at the doorstep of France and
Europe.”
Thanks to the quick reaction of
the French government, in just 24 hours,
French forces succeeded in dispersing
the Islamists from Konna, the town the
rebels had seized in a bold advance ear
lier in the week.
Soon enough,
"a halting blow has
been delivered, and heavy losses have
been inficted on our adversaries, but our
mission is not complete,"
French President
Francois Hollande declared after a three-
hour meeting with his defence chiefs in
Paris gathered around Admiral Edouard
Guillaud, the Joint Chief of Staf.
"I repeat
that it consists in preparing the deploy-
ment of an African intervention force to
allowMali to recover its territorial integrity."
However, in a sign of how difcult
and risky the combats ahead were to be
during the following weeks, the rebels
succeeded in shooting down a French
Gazelle helicopter at the start of the
fghtings. The pilot, Lieutenant Damien
Boiteux of the 4
e
Régiment d’Hélicop
ca Ocidental. Como o ministro da Defesa
francês, Jean-Yves Le Drian, disse no iní
cio das hostilidades, o resultado poten
cial seria testemunhar o surgimento de
"um estado terrorista na porta da França
e da Europa."
Graças à rápida reação do
governo francês, em apenas 24 horas as
forças francesas conseguiram dispersar
os islamitas de Konna, a cidade que os
rebeldes haviam tomado em um avanço
ousado no início da semana.
Pouco depois,
"um golpe muito forte
foi dado, e pesadas perdas foram infigidas
No início da Operação Serval em janeiro de
2013, sobre Níger, um trio de caças-bombar-
deiros Dassault Mirage 2000D da Força Aérea
Francesea reúne-se por trás de um Boeing
C-135FR Stratotanker em rota para Bamako no
Mali. Permanentemente baseadas em N’Dja-
ména no Chade desde 1986, essas aeronaves
são parte da Opération Épervier, inicialmente
organisada para conter as incursões da Líbia
na parte norte do Chade. O Mirage 2000D
tornou-se o “coringa” da Armée de l'Air desde
a aposentadoria do SEPECAT Jaguar. Um pro-
grama de modernização para prolongar a vida
do Mirage 2000D até 2025 está planejado, mas
ele também poderá ser engavetado devido ao
atual mau estado da economia francesa.
At the onset of Opération Serval in January
2013, over Niger, a trio of French Air Force
Dassault Mirage 2000D fighter-bombers gather
behind a C-135FR en route to Bamako in Mali.
Based in N'Djaména, Chad, these aircraft are
part of Opération Épervier, the French military
force assisting the Chadian armed forces since
1986, initially to contain Libyan incursions into
the northern part of Chad. The Mirage 2000D
has become the jack of all trades of the French
Air Force since the retirement of the SEPECAT
Jaguar. A modernisation programme to extend
the life of the Mirage 2000D until 2025 is plan-
ned, but it could well be shelved due to the bad
state of the French economy.
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