All
means have been implemented by French leaders for the military operation
in Libya to be a success. Paris successively deployed four nuclear-powered
Attack Submarine (SSN) in that theater, one of which making two deployments.
Those submarines were deployed in addition to several French Air Force
combat aircraft available, the French Navy aircraft carrier, two Mistral
class LHD and Special Forces on the ground.
SSN have been deployed for eight months in total. This means they were
deployed before the green light from the UN to enforce the no fly zone.
The first Rubis class SSN deployed at the end of February to collect
information prior to the decision to launch the first strike on the
Gaddafi columns in Benghazi which was on March 19.
The talks between the Chiefs of Staff of the Royal Navy and Marine
Nationale also begun one month before the start of the operation, to
allocate respective areas of operation: in the language of submariners,
"so that everyone can have some water". Maintaining a sovereign
command over its strategic resources "France was able to do what
it wanted during Nato’s Operation Unified Protector" a French
Navy officer reports. France was the only member of the coalition who
decided to keep it this way all along.
The US Navy and Royal Navy nuclear submarine have played a key role
in the first days to launch Tomahawk missiles that neutralized the Libyan
air defenses. Turkey, Italy and Spain then deployed conventional diesel-electric
submarines (SSK) for surveillance missions.
The Rubis class SSN that was the first to deploy has just returned to
Toulon as the operation just ended on October 25. As a "precursor"
the SSN swept the Libyan coast. "The goal was just to know what
was going on: what was the intensity of combat and the operational value
of each force” said Captain L., with who Le Monde newspaper met
on November 4. When we first arrived, we saw that the oil tankers traffic
had ceased around the coastal terminals, that there was no fishing activity,
particularly in the Gulf of Sirte, closed by a "death line"
by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. " |
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The day after the UN resolution vote, the French
Navy SSN crew noticed the immediate change of attitude amongst Gaddafi’s
forces: "They stopped flying their aircraft and their ships weren’t
going out anymore. But they established their air defenses." The
Libyan leader had taken the measure of what was coming.
Returning to the scene in mid-July, the same SSN this time prepared
the intervention of French helicopters. Usually, the submarine hunts
alone. "Such integration in support of helicopter strikes is unprecedented,"
notes Commander H. Artillery fire, fireworks, port activities, human
movement: "We were able to detect the rising of Tripoli" Commander
H. explains. With a British frigate, the SSN is then the only boat at
sea right off the Libyan capital.
Masters of the Libyan littoral, submarines were the eyes of the conflict.
"This has mitigated the absence of ground troops," says Commander
H. They also controlled the ports, neutralizing Gaddafi’s Navy.
The only threats that remained were suicide boats and mines, and it
was ultimately very limited, without really knowing why. "They
could have really hurt" says the French officer, knowing that on
the surface, forty ships of the coalition blocked the coast without
any real coordination.
French Navy crews had not known such a mission since the Kosovo war.
It took place at periscope depth, shallow position that is the trickiest
for the submarine. To its crew, it was a live war but a remote war.
“You are facing an area in which people kill each other. You see
them." In the absence of ground troops, you get a strange feeling
of "spectator".
From: Le monde
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