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Naval
Forces News - Russia |
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Russia
May Deploy IL-38 Maritime Patrol Aircraft at French Base in Djibouti
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Russia
has asked France to allow the deployment of two Ilyushin Il-38 naval
reconnaissance planes at a French base in Djibouti to facilitate its
anti-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov
said on Wednesday.
“We have asked France to host two reconnaissance planes at its
air base in Djibouti in addition to three French planes deployed there,”
Serdyukov said after a meeting of the Russian-French Security Cooperation
Council in Paris. |
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The Il-38 May is a Soviet-era maritime patrol aircraft still in service
with the Russian Navy |
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The plane
can fly at a maximum speed of 650 km/h. It has a range of 9,500 km
and service ceiling of 10,000 meters.
Russian warships
have successfully escorted more than 130 commercial vessels from various
countries through pirate-infested waters off the Somali coast since
2008, when Russia joined the international anti-piracy mission in
the region.
Task forces from
the Russian Navy, usually led by Udaloy class destroyers, operate
in the area on a rotating basis.
However, the Russian
military believes that the deployment of reconnaissance planes in
the region would significantly improve the effectiveness of its anti-piracy
missions.
France maintains
its largest foreign military base in its former colony located at
the juncture of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Djibouti base
hosts several thousand French military personnel, as well as a number
of military aircraft.
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