This air mission, named Pégase 22, also includes two Airbus A330 MRTT tankers and two military Airbus A400M.
Three Rafale fighter jets are expected Friday in New Caledonia from metropolitan France as part of a projection of Air Force and Space assets in the Asia-Pacific zone. This air mission, named Pégase 22, also includes two Airbus A330 MRTT tankers and two military Airbus A400M. After two stopovers in India and Australia and 18,000 kilometers traveled, the fleet will end the day in New Caledonia on Friday. “This mission aims to show that France is capable of protecting its interests and its nationals anywhere in the world,” Colonel Frédéric Puchois, chief of the FANC (Armed Forces of New Caledonia) Joint Staff, told AFP.
Also readGreece buys six more Rafales
SEE ALSO – China continues military maneuvers near Taiwan
Confirm France’s presence in this area
Its aim is also to “reaffirm France’s presence in this area of strategic interest and to strengthen (the) links with many partners in the region,” continued the Army’s chief of staff for aeronautics and space, Stéphane Mille, in a document introducing Pégase 22.
In the French archipelago in the South Pacific, exercises will be held until August 16 with FANC’s “sea, air and land assets” in Koumac (north) and Lifou (Loyalty archipelago).
The air command, which will mobilize around 160 personnel, will also conduct overflights over various regions of New Caledonia so the population can see the aircraft. As the first fighter pilot of Kanak origin, Johan Pidjot will pilot one of the three Rafales.
Restart of cooperation with Australia
The aircraft will then fly to Australia for three weeks, where they will take part in Exercise Pitch Black, along with “one hundred aircraft from the allied air forces of Australia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand or even Germany,” Colonel Puchois explained.
Also read Submarine crisis: Eight months after the shock, Australia and France want to continue
“Pitch Black” marks “the restart of Air cooperation with Australia following the disappointment over the incident surrounding the canceled sale of French submarines,” according to the Armed Forces Ministry. Canberra canceled a mega deal to buy French submarines in September 2021, triggering a diplomatic crisis between the two countries. The military planes will return to French territory on September 18 after stops in Indonesia, Singapore and the French air force base in the United Arab Emirates.
SEE ALSO – War in Ukraine: The French Rafales are the “air police”