The French Navy’s Jeanne D’Arc training and operational mission deployment began Monday as the task group, comprising of amphibious assault ship FS Mistral (L9013) and frigate FS Surcouf (F711), left from Toulon, France, for a five-month deployment to the Atlantic and Arctic Circle region.
The Jeanne d’Arc mission is an annual deployment for the French Navy – named for former helicopter cruiser Jeanne d’Arc (R97), which primarily served as a training ship for the French naval academy. Following the ship’s decommissioning in 2010, the French Navy continued the mission name with one of its three Mistral-class amphibious assault ships and a surface escort carrying out the deployment.
The mission combines the end stage of the training course for French naval academy cadets with an operational presence and engagement deployment, according to the French Navy’s operational focus. Last year, the task group nearly circumnavigated South America while doing drills and engagements followed by an exercise in the U.S.
“During these five months of mission, the amphibious group will travel the Atlantic from the Ivory Coast to the Arctic Circle, via the Antilles, to return to France via the Baltic Sea. Amphibious exercises will punctuate the deployment, allowing the embarked tactical group to train in particular with Brazilian, American and Norwegian force,” according to a French Navy release on the deployment.
The task group will also participate in Operation Corymbe in the Gulf of Guinea and the fight against drug trafficking in the Antilles. Operation Corymbe began in 1990 with France deploying one to two ships on a semi-permanent basis to support regional countries in countering piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
A total of 640 French Navy sailors, including 151 cadets, and 150 French soldiers forming a tactical battle group and an airmobile element create the task force.
The French Navy is deploying a single Dauphin helicopter and a S100 Camcopter rotary wing Unmanned Aerial vehicle (UAV). The French Army battle group includes 90 soldiers forming a command and support section, an infantry section, a light cavalry platoon, a 120mm mortar section and an amphibious reconnaissance squad. It will bring 40 vehicles – a mix of combat, support and engineering vehicles while the airmobile element consist of two Gazelle reconnaissance helicopters and two Cougar tactical transport helicopters and 60 soldiers.
Additional French Navy ships may be deployed and integrated into the task group at certain stages to support the task group’s objective, according to a French release. No dates have been disclosed for the task group’s schedule though its route, activities and stops were shown in a map.
From Toulon, the Jeanne D’Arc task group will head to the Gulf of Guinea to carry out Operation Corymbe along with a port call in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and subsequently cross the Atlantic to Forteleza, Brazil, and carry out amphibious exercise Fortaleza 25 with the Brazilian Navy.
It then moves on to the French territory of French Guinea and then to the French territory of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean where the task group will conduct activities in support of French operations around both territories with amphibious training also carried out around Guadeloupe.
The task group will make a final South America port visit in Cartagena, Colombia, and move on to North America.
New Orleans will be the Jeanne D’Arc task group’s first U.S. stop. From there the task group will sail to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., to carry out an amphibious landing as part of the U.S.-French exercise Chesapeake 25, followed by port visits to New York, Quebec and the French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon before moving on to the Arctic Circle.
The task group will sail near Greenland enroute to a port visit to Reykjavik, Iceland, and then
move on to Tromso, Norway for a port visit and then an operational visit to Tromso before conducting Exercise Njord 25 with the Norwegian Armed Forces. Port visits to Malmo, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark, wrap up the Northern Europe phase of the deployment with the task group conducting exercise Entendard 25 off the coast of southwest France, a final graduation exercise for the embarked cadets, before heading back to Toulon.
Marines Deploy to Finland
The Marine Corps announced Feb. 21 in a release that 40 U.S. Marines from the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion based out of Camp Lejeune, deployed to Finland in support of the NATO-led Baltic Sentry enhanced vigilance activity.
The Marines will operate alongside the Finish Coastal Brigade.
“Marines will provide sUAS (small Unmanned Aerial Systems) and other expeditionary-based capabilities aimed at safeguarding critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea through increasing surveillance, information exchange and awareness. The Marine Corps’ ability to be an expeditionary and agile force, with expertise in littoral environments, makes us a logical partner for this type of enhanced vigilance activity,” reads the release.
While the release did not mention the sUAS system deployed, images provided with the release showed the deployed Marines operating the RQ-20 UAS. NATO launched Operation Baltic Sentry on Jan. 14 to deter further attempts to damage critical underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.
