France Successfully Deploys Air Assets to Asia-Pacific Region - NATO
French air force has successfully conducted the first phase of a large-scale long-range deployment of air assets into the Asian-Pacific region, NATO said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2022) French air force has successfully conducted the first phase of a large-scale long-range deployment of air assets into the Asian-Pacific region, NATO said on Tuesday.
"On August 10, 2022, the French Air and Space Force launched a large-scale long-range deployment of air assets into the Asian-Pacific region. The first phase of the deployment - dubbed Henri Brown - began in France on August 10 and ended in New Caledonia on August 12. An air task force consisting of three Rafale fighters, two A330 MRTT Phenix air-to-air refuelling aircraft and two A400M transport aircraft conducted the force projection mission in less than 72 hours," the alliance said in a statement.
According to NATO, the second phase of the deployment will be hosted by Australia from August 19 to September 8 in the form of Pitch Black multinational air drills, boosting battle readiness and interoperability of NATO member-states.
The third phase would be conducted from September 11 to 18 and would include the return flights to France with stopovers in Indonesia and Singapore for "conducting operational cooperation with the local air forces."
Pitch Black is a biennial exercise designed to enhance flight operations and proficiency between participating nations. This year, the drills will be visited by participants from 17 countries including from Japan, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and India.