The two French explosions fly over the wooded areas of the Polish field. Its mission: intercept any Russian drone that cross the borders of NATO, as part of the operation “Eastern Sentinel” launched on Friday, September 12 by the Atlantic Alliance, in response to the incursion of Russian drones in Poland.
A few minutes before, the call tone sounded in the hangar that houses the detachment of 68 French soldiers based on Minsk Mazowiecki, about fifty kilometers from warsaw.
Captains Justine and Hugo, whose last name cannot be revealed, then equipped and joined in their plane in a few minutes, armed with four air-air missiles of Mica and a 30 mm barrel.
This was decided on Friday after the intrusion in Poland on the night of September 9 to 10 of the 19 Russian long -range drones of the neighboring and Ukraine neighbor. Three of these drones were killed in the Polish airspace, the first in the history of the alliance created in 1949.
“Intentional or not, it is dangerous. And unacceptable,” justified NATO Secretary Mark Rutte, announcing the operation aimed at strengthening the Eastern Flanco of the Alliance. German and British Eurofighter, as well as the Danish F-16, deployed in other bases, also participate in “Eastern Sentry”.
“Real Trigger”
The position of the Minsk Mazowiecki base makes the contribution of the three essential French rafale, Lieutenant Colonel Marcin Boruta estimates, of the Polish Air Force, because it is 120 kilometers from the Bélarusia border and 150 kilometers of Ukraine, and “it is the most important basis east of the war.”
Happy coincidence, the three Rafale had already been in Poland for a few days as part of an exercise, known as NATO “AS”, aimed at spreading a short -term air force in different bases.
A few hours after the launch of Eastern Sentry, “we were the first deployed, our planes were ready to take the alert,” according to Captain Lucas, the Navigator-Offer weapons systems in Rafale. It didn’t spend much time: until Saturday, two Rafale had an “Scramble Alpha”, a “real trigger”, Captain Lucas decides.
The command of air operations, based in Germany, “asked us to look for drones that had been detected on the Ukrainian and Belarusian territories towards Poland.” These drones finally did not cross the border and, therefore, were not intercepted.
French deterrence
In the case of an intrusion in Poland of Gueran-2 drones stuffed with explosives or gerbera, attract drones and observation, such as those that Moscow launches hundreds of almost every night against Ukraine, NATO combat planes are responsible for finding them, identifying them, “uploading information” and if necessary to destroy them.
Should we neutralize a drone of a few tens of thousands of euros with a missile for costing 600,000 or favoring cannon shells, much less expensive? For Captain Lucas, the cost does not take into account.
Faced with low -speed flying drones about a few hundred meters above sea level, shooting in the cannon can be dangerous near inhabited areas.
In addition to the message of solidarity between the NATO states, the membership of the three bursts deployed in Poland in the Strategic Air Forces (FAS), the French nuclear component in the air, responds to a “choice that is not trivial”, Etienne Marcuz, researcher associated with the basis for strategic research (FRS).
“The deployment of the FAS in Poland accredits the presidential discourse on the European dimension of the French deterrence when specifying it,” he explains in X, while President Emmanuel Macron said he was “ready to initiate a strategic dialogue with our European partners who are ready there.”
Source: BFM TV
