26.09.2013 Par Guillaume Belan (FOB)

Aussitôt livré, aussitôt déployé! Le nouveau Porteur Polyvalent Terrestre de l’Armée de Terre, dont les premiers exemplaires ont été livré le 24 juin à l’Armée de Terre (relire l’article de FOB sur le PPT ), est parti pour le Mali milieu du mois de septembre. Huit PPT sont dorénavant sur le territoire malien pour soulager les vieillissants VTL-R (Véhicule de Transport Logistique avec Remorque) et autres TRM 1000 à bout de souffle, d’autant plus que les conditions du théâtre malien mettent hommes et équipements à rude épreuve.

Rappelons que l’armée de terre va recevoir 200 de ces véhicules de transport 8X8 réalisés par Iveco. Et si au final l’armée de terre a exprimé un besoin pour 800 de ces véhicules efficaces également conçus pour protéger leurs équipages, pas sûr que la LPM en débat au Parlement le lui accorde…

The K-MAX unmanned cargo helicopter is used to deliver supplies to troops in the war zone. (US Marine Corps)

Sep. 25, 2013 - By PAUL McLEARY – Defense News

QUANTICO, VA. — Two of the companies competing for the Marine Corps’ unmanned lift/ISR capability are facing off on opposite sides of the display tent this week here, offering unmanned helicopter variants of traditionally manned birds.

Working as a subcontractor to Aurora Flight Services to compete for the Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System (AACUS) program, Boeing has been flying its H-6U Little Bird helicopter unmanned, preparing for a Marine Corps evaluation in February at Quantico.

The companies are flying the Little Bird near Manassas with a pilot on board, but not controlling the aircraft, because having the pilot option helps them comply with FAA regulations, said the company’s Michael Sahag, business development for unmanned airborne systems.

Boeing has actually been flying the helicopter unmanned since 2004, including take-offs and landings on ships at sea, including on a commercial ship in July, and a test with the French Navy in October 2012.

The Little Bird has an endurance of about 12 hours with a limited payload, and can carry up to 25,000 pounds, including weapons such as Hellfire rockets and other ISR mission packages.

Just across the exhibition hall, Lockheed Martin is eager to talk about its K-MAX unmanned helicopter, which the Marines have been flying in Afghanistan since late 2011.

The company initially sent two helicopters to Afghanistan, but one crashed on a supply run near Camp Leatherneck in June, so for the moment, only one is based at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, ferrying food and supplies to Marines at far-flung outposts.

The K-MAX is capable of carrying up to about 6,000 pounds of cargo, and once flew 30,000 pounds of cargo over the course of six missions.

Terry Fogarty, general manager of the Kaman UAS product group, confirmed that the Marines plan on keeping at least one K-MAX in theater until at least 2014, when the last Marines are expected to leave Afghanistan.

He added that since Lockheed is working to win the program of record work for the unmanned AACUS effort, the K-MAX — in a manned capacity — had flown off of ships at sea back in the 1990s during operations in the Arabian Gulf.

“Shipboard landing is key,” he said. “Even the Army wants to do shipboard landings” with manned and unmanned aircraft in the future, he added.

While the Army is moving much slower than the Corps in developing an unmanned lift capability, it did conduct two flight tests of an unmanned Black Hawk in November and May at the Diablo Range in California.

And back in January 2012, the Army released a request for information for a cargo-carrying unmanned aircraft system that would be able to carry cargo up to 300 nautical miles at 250 knots while carrying 5,000 to 8,000 pounds — but they’ve been quiet about the whole idea since.

But that doesn’t means Congress isn’t paying attention.

In its markup of the fiscal 2014 defense bill, the House Armed Services Committee said its members are “concerned that the Army, despite having very similar logistical challenges [as the Marine Corps], does not have a cargo UAS program.”

Therefore, the committee wants the Army secretary to deliver a report to Congress by February about what the Army’s plans are for developing such a system.

Senior Aircraftwoman Joanna Tomsett refuelling an Army Lynx helicopter (Picture Sergeant Dale Hunt RAF, UK MoD)

24 September 2013 Ministry of Defence

An RAF team is providing pit-stop-style refuels at Camp Bastion to keep military helicopters in the air over Afghanistan.

On front line operations in Afghanistan helicopters are in high demand. The ‘rotary wing assets’, in military language, are the lynchpins of tactical mobility, able to operate at much lower heights and speeds than fixed-wing aircraft. In a theatre environment the quick turnaround of aircraft at the pumps is essential.

The RAF Tactical Supply Wing (TSW) provides 24-hour aviation fuel support to both UK and visiting coalition helicopters from the flight line at Camp Bastion airfield.

At a moment’s notice, the TSW personnel are ready at the Helmand base’s aerial gas pumps, or ‘bulk fuel installations’, to carry out the specialised pit-stop-fast ‘rotors turning refuels’ (RTRs). Within a matter of minutes an aircraft can be ready to head off on its next flight.

On average, the TSW refuels more than 300 aircraft a week, pumping over 300,000 litres of fuel in that time.

In addition to providing refuels from Camp Bastion, TSW personnel are also ready to assist in the recovery of unserviceable aircraft anywhere in the area of operations. Within 30 minutes they can be refuelling or defueling a stranded helicopter in order for it to be transported back to a main operating base.

The TSW comprises 19 personnel from supply, engineering or military transport backgrounds. From senior aircraftmen to officers commanding, all are trained primarily in RTRs, ensuring each team member is capable of delivering this fundamental service.

Senior Aircraftwoman Joanna Tomsett is a supply specialist on her second deployment to Afghanistan; her first with the TSW:

I am really enjoying TSW,” she said. “There are lots of different parts to the job, and that keeps things interesting. Working with the rotary wing I feel a lot more involved in it all.

We work as a close-knit team on TSW, train as a team in the UK, and then deploy together. The guys are great.

Corporal Neil Sinclair, a military transport driver, is on his second deployment with the TSW. He said:

The main job out here is delivering fuel to the aircraft and that takes priority over everything we do. The best thing about the job is actually putting the fuel into the aircraft.

A lot of people may actually question why they are here in Afghanistan, but you really get a feeling of worth doing this job. We refuel an aircraft and know that it is going back out on operations to support ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) or ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) troops. It really does give you a sense of achievement.

The Officer Commanding TSW, Supplier Warrant Officer Gaz Barlow, said:

TSW is all about teamwork. We train together and work together. It is even more important as we deploy as a formed unit … and it really does work.

17 September 2013 by Oscar Nkala and Kim Helfrich - defenceWeb

US Army Africa Command (Africom) wants private contractors to move military equipment and supplies from the US to Egypt and 55 other countries within its Area of Responsibility (AOR) starting this month.

This comes hard on the heels of a transport contract awarded by the US Army’s Transport Command (US-TRANSCOM) to Berry Aviation to provide to provide air transport service in support of operations in western and central Africa. This contract is reportedly worth $49 million.

A solicitation notice issued by Africom Surface Distribution Services (ASDS) from its contracting office in Vincenza, Italy, on August 5 seeks contractors who will provide “transportation services of intra-theatre cargo within the Africom Area of Responsibility (AOR) and Egypt.”

The solicitation adds: “The contractor shall provide all necessary resources including logistics support and management to perform surface transport and distribution of general cargo within all fifty five (55) nations of the Africom AOR and Egypt.

In the solicitation document, Africom says materials to be transported, “although normally general in nature will not include sensitive cargo but may include hazardous materials.”

The solicitation notice adds contractors will not be required to transport classified equipment and materials, gunpowder, ammunition or military weapons and explosives.

It also states the successful contractors will not be required to move military tanks, self-propelled armoured combat vehicles with weapons, aircraft and spacecraft including satellites, radar or radio devices for remote control of weapons and equipment.

These developments come when at least one American military watcher, Nick Turse of TomDispatch.com, maintains Africom is involved in the A to Z of Africa.

“They’re involved in Algeria and Angola, Benin and Botswana, Burkina Faso and Burundi, Cameroon and the Cape Verde Islands. And that’s just the ABCs of the situation. Skip to the end of the alphabet and the story remains the same: Senegal and the Seychelles, Togo and Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia. From north to south, east to west, the Horn of Africa to the Sahel, the heart of the continent to the islands off its coasts, the US military is at work. Base construction, security co-operation engagements, training exercises, advisory deployments, special operations missions and a growing logistics network, all undeniable evidence of expansion—except at US Africa Command,” he wrote.

Giving the official line Turse goes on: “To hear Africom tell it, US military involvement on the continent ranges from the miniscule to the microscopic. The command is adamant it has only a single ‘military base’ in all of Africa: Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. The head of the command insists that the US military maintains a ‘small footprint’ on the continent. Africom’s chief spokesman has consistently minimised the scope of its operations and the number of facilities it maintains or shares with host nations, asserting only ‘a small presence of personnel who conduct short-duration engagements’ are operating from ‘several locations’ on the continent at any given time”.

He quotes Colonel Tom Davis, Africom director of public affairs, as saying: “Other than our base at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, we do not have military bases in Africa, nor do we have plans to establish any”. Davis admitted the US has temporary facilities elsewhere. . supporting much smaller numbers of personnel “usually for a specific activity”.

Another solicitation notice (HTC711-13-R-R016) issued in July seeks dedicated fixed wing service for the deployment and extraction of US military personnel involved in operations in the central African region.

It specifies contractors must be able to transport personnel and willing to carry hazardous cargo including ammunitions for small arms, signal flares, smoke grenades, blasting caps, rockets, mines and explosive charges in the central African theatre of operations.

“The contractor will be asked to routinely take off and land on improved and unimproved dirt airfields of a minimum of 1 800 feet in length to support resupply and personnel transportation requirements,” part of the solicitation note reads.

It said routine locations involved in the operations could include airfields such as Entebbe in Uganda, Obo and Djema in the Central African Republic. The operations will also support the training of counter-narcotics law enforcement agencies from Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Niger, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Togo, Guinea and Mali.

Apart from these developments the US Military has been supporting construction all over Africa for its allies.

A report by Hugh Denny of the Army Corps of Engineers issued earlier this year references 79 such projects in 33 countries between 2011 and 2013 including Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote D’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tunisia, The Gambia, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia with a reported price tag of $48 million.

In addition to creating or maintaining bases and engaging in military construction across the continent, the US is involved in near constant training and advisory missions. According to Davis, the command is slated to carry out 14 major bilateral and multilateral exercises by the end of this year. These include Saharan Express 2013, which brought together forces from Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Liberia, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, among other nations, for maritime security training; Obangame Express 2013, a counter-piracy exercise involving the armed forces of among others Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Togo; and Africa Endeavour 2013, in which the militaries of Djibouti, Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, Zambia, and 34 other African nations took part.

And it’s not only on land and in the air that US forces are making their presence felt more. The Defense Logistics Agency is preparing to buy 65 000 metric tonnes of marine gas oil for Africom operations.

Information obtained by defenceWeb also shows from April 2014, Africom Ships’ Bunkers programme will order fuel to be delivered “into US vessels for US Department of Defense and federal civilian agencies by barge, truck, or pipeline”.

The command is seeking up to 27 000 metric tonnes of fuel for delivery to US Air Force and Navy assets in Seychelles, an island nation off the coast of East Africa. Neighbouring Mauritius is next with a maximum order of 10 000 metric tonnes of fuel.

Other destinations for Africom fuel supplies are Tanzania, Cape Verde, Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Namibia.

13/09/2013 Sources : EMA

Les 3 et 4 septembre 2013, la frégate de surveillance Le Vendémiaire a effectué une mission d’approvisionnement sur l'îlot Walpole.

L’îlot Walpole est un rocher inhabité situé à 200 kms au sud-est de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Sur cet ilot où s’exerce la souveraineté française est positionné un plot de ravitaillement carburant, utile pour la réalisation des missions de surveillance maritime et de service public. Il sert également de point de ravitaillement pour augmenter le rayon d’action des aéronefs de l'armée de l'air basés à Tontouta et leur permettre d’opérer sur les iles de Matthew et Hunter, deux autres îlots français situés encore plus à l'est.

En tant que forces de souveraineté, les forces armées en Nouvelle-Calédonie ont pour mandat d’assurer des missions de de lutte contre les trafics illicites, de police des pêches, de lutte contre la pollution, de sauvetage en mer  et d’évacuation sanitaire. Dans ce cadre, elles ont la responsabilité d’assurer régulièrement le ravitaillement de ce type de plot.

La frégate Le Vendémiaire stationnée à Nouméa, a ainsi embarqué un hélicoptère Puma de l'armée de l'Air et un détachement du service des essences des armées pour se rendre à proximité de l’îlot. Compte tenu de la présence de falaises hautes et abruptes, de l’absence de route et d’infrastructure permettant l’accostage des navires, seul l’hélicoptère permet un accès rapide et efficace pour assurer les ravitaillements.

Les FANC constituent le point d’appui central du« théâtre Pacifique» avec un dispositif interarmées centré sur un groupement tactique interarmes (GTIA) et les moyens de projection associés. Avec les forces armées en Polynésie Française (FAPF), dispositif interarmées à dominante maritime, les FANC ont pour principale mission d’assurer la souveraineté de la France dans leur zone de responsabilité, d’animer la coopération régionale et d’entretenir des relations privilégiées avec l’ensemble des pays riverains de la zone pacifique. Dans le cadre de leur mission, les FANC engagent régulièrement leurs moyens pour des opérations d’aide aux populations, en appui des autres services de l’Etat.

Jackal and Coyote vehicles waiting to be unloaded at Marchwood (Picture Corporal Lu Scott, UK MoD)

9 September 2013 Ministry of Defence and Defence Equipment and Support

The delivery of nearly 100 vehicles to the UK from Afghanistan today brings the total number redeployed from theatre to more than 1,000.

94 vehicles were unloaded earlier today, Monday 9 September, at Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre near Southampton after transit from a port in the Middle East.

The protected patrol vehicles on board the ‘roll-on, roll-off’ ferry included 18 Mastiffs, each weighing more than 26 tonnes, and more than 30 Jackal vehicles.

British armoured vehicles are either being flown from Camp Bastion in Helmand province or in some cases moved overland through Pakistan to a sea port, before being loaded onto a ferry.

The ferry then spends over 4 weeks at sea navigating through the Gulf of Oman, along the coast of Yemen, across the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal, before sailing through the Mediterranean, past Gibraltar, and finally turning for UK shores.

So far more than 1,080 vehicles and pieces of major equipment have been redeployed to the UK from Afghanistan, alongside 1,570 containers of materiel.

Under current plans, around 3,345 vehicles or items of equipment and around 5,500 containers of materiel will be returned by the conclusion of the British combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014.

The vehicles returned to the UK today will next travel to the Herrick exchange point facility at Warminster where mechanics will work to bring them up to standard ready to issue to units for future use.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said:

Having deployed thousands of vehicles and pieces of equipment to Afghanistan over the last 12 years we are making good progress in bringing them home as we near the end of combat operations in December 2014. A huge amount of work goes into returning our equipment and vehicles from Helmand, so I’m pleased with the progress we have made so far.

The redeployment of equipment from Afghanistan is a major logistical challenge, but I am confident military planners are up to the task and we are on schedule to bring home the vast array of equipment we have deployed there. Our troops will be resourced properly to the end of operations, and the drawdown of equipment will not compromise our mission in Afghanistan.

We can only achieve this redeployment because of the successful transition of security control from British forces to Afghan forces, which are increasingly capable and professional. These forces have stepped up in the fight against the insurgency throughout this summer and now lead on security throughout the country.

The Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre is the sole ‘Army’ port in the UK and was built up in 1943 to ferry equipment and personnel to the Normandy beaches the following year during the Second World War.

The 289-acre site, which incorporates 3 main jetties, is operated by 17 Port and Maritime Regiment Royal Logistic Corps, who load and discharge Service and civilian shipping in support of military administration, exercises and operations.

Munich,  06 septembre 2013 EADS

Cassidian intègre le scanner mobile unique de Philips, qui offre une excellente réduction des artefacts métalliques, dans sa gamme complète d’hôpitaux mobiles

September 4, 2013 By  Zachary Keck - http://thediplomat.com

Russia’s only aircraft carrier will visit Tartus’s small naval base in Syria later this year, BBC Monitoring reported citing a newspaper published by the Russian government.

“At the end of the year, most likely in early December, the Project 11435 heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser the Admiral Kuznetsov will set off on a long-distance sea voyage during which it will call at the Russian Federation Navy's logistical support centre located in the Syrian city of Tartus,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement, BBC Monitoring reported on Saturday, citing a Russian-language report in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a newspaper run by the Russian government.

The article goes on to quote a Defense Ministry staffer as saying that the route of the vessel’s “long-distance sea voyage” was already set and it was therefore unlikely to be affected by the civil war in Syria. The Admiral Kuznetsov’s stopover in Tartus is “in no way connected” to the Syrian civil war Rossiyskaya Gazeta paraphrased the staffer as saying, according to BBC Monitoring.

The Admiral Kuznetsov is Russia’s only operational aircraft carrier. The article clarifies that Russia refers to the ship as an aircraft-carrying cruiser because “under international treaties aircraft carriers are banned from passing through the Bosporus and Dardanelles…. But this ban does not extend to aircraft-carrying cruisers.”

According to the article, the carrier can hold 50 airplanes and helicopters and comes equipped with “Granit antiship missiles, Kortik and Klinok surface-to-air missiles, and Udav antisubmarine warfare systems.” The article also reports that the Admiral Kuznetsov is 14,000 square meters and carries a crew of nearly 2,200 people including flight and technical personnel.

Read more

20 August 2013 by Guy Martin - defenceWeb

Namibia and Germany have signed an agreement that will see continued military cooperation over the next three years, including the provision of training and equipment that can be used for peacekeeping operations.

Namibian defence minister Nahas Angula and German ambassador to Namibia Onno Huckmann signed the sixth such defence cooperation agreement on August 7. The budget under the new agreement amounts to some N$40 million – N$200 million has been budgeted since Germany and Namibia began cooperating in the field of defence in 1992, according to the German Embassy in Windhoek.

The German Federal Government's Equipment Aid Programme for foreign armed forces has been in existence for more than four decades. Responsible for the implementation of this programme are groups of seconded technical advisors of the Bundeswehr. Namibia’s fifth tranche of 4 million euros ended in December last year.

Huckmann said the latest agreement was “outstanding evidence of the close and fruitful cooperation between the armed forces of our two sister nations”. He added that Germany military assistance to the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) has been very successful.

The Equipment Aid Programme will focus on establishing a Camp Operation Logistic Unit, which Namibia will use when contributing troops to African Union and United Nations-led peacekeeping missions. The German Embassy added that medical and maintenance facilities will be constructed in order to strengthen these areas of the Namibian Defence Force.

The Namibian government finances 50% of these projects, which have included the delivery of a mobile field hospital, a vehicle mechanic training centre and other initiatives. Equipment Aid shipments from Germany have included more than 25 tons of medical equipment, 20 all-terrain ambulances, trucks, spare parts and equipment.

In addition, the German Advisory Group has trained Namibian Defence Force vehicle mechanics and storekeepers and a central workshop and training centre have been constructed. A driving school was established between 2002 and 2006 and trains all NDF drivers. In February 2012 the school was moved to the Osona base near Okahandja and was handed over on August 31.

Another joint project saw the supply and installation of an old ammunition disposal facility, which was also offered to peacekeeping missions of neighbouring countries. Ammunition disposal started in December 2002 and until its handover in 2006 was operated jointly by the NDF and German Advisory Group.

One of the largest projects between Namibia and Germany was the delivery of a mobile field hospital, which the NDF will use to deliver operational and emergency health care services during military operations and provide emergency civilian health care services for relief agencies in the event of natural disasters.

The mobile field hospital was handed over at Luiperds Vallei on February 26 this year. It can treat up to 40 outpatients per day and has an admission capacity of 20 patients at a time. Furthermore, dental treatment of up to 20 patients and four operations are possible.

Detailed logistics enables the mobile field hospital to bring all the necessary equipment with its own transport to the area it is deployed. Water purifiers, water tanks, kitchens, generators, toilet and shower containers as well as sewage and refuse disposals are part of the self-contained operation of the hospital.

The hospital can be deployed in all types of terrain as it is mounted on a 4-wheel drive overlander vehicle. It has two intensive care units, laboratories, an X-ray unit and a mobile oxygen concentrator which allows it to produce its own oxygen.

It enables the Namibian Armed Forces to support peace keeping missions of up to 1 000 soldiers within the framework of UN, AU or SADC missions.

22 August 2013 naval-technology.com

Erickson Air-Crane has been awarded a contract by the US Department of Defense (DoD) to provide comprehensive replenishment and logistics services.

Under the contract, Erickson Air-Crane will provide ship-based and shore-based vertical replenishment and other rotary-wing logistic services to the US Navy Military Sealift Command (MSC), for support of the US fifth and seventh fleets, operating primarily in the Pacific and Indian oceans.

The company will also provide search and rescue support, medical evacuations, passenger transfers, internal cargo movement and dynamic interface testing as part of the contract.

Erickson chief executive officer, Udo Rieder, said the company will provide these important services to the Sealift Command.

"This new award for Evergreen underlines our growth opportunity and further cements our position as a preferred provider of services for a wide variety of missions in support of defence operations around the world," Rieder said.

"The company will provide search and rescue support, medical evacuations, passenger transfers, internal cargo movement and dynamic interface testing."

The MSC's vertical replenishment (VERTREP) programme has been designed to create efficiency, allow ships to remain at sea for extended periods as well as to improve safety and boost mission readiness levels for the US.

Operating approximately 110 non-combatant, merchant mariner-crewed ships that replenish US Navy ships, the MSC performs specialised missions, strategically prepositions combat cargo at sea and move military cargo and supplies used by deployed US forces and coalition partners.

Awarded competitively to Evergreen Helicopters International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Erickson Air-Crane, the contract will begin on 1 October 2013.

The contract has a first year value of $6.8m and four additional option-year renewals, with a cumulative total value of $36.6m.

17/08/2013 Sources : EMA

Du 12 au 14 août 2013, 9 militaires du bataillon malien « Hélou » ont suivi une instruction à la conduite et à l’entretien de 1^er échelon de véhicules tactiques par les militaires français de la Mission Européenne d’Entraînement au Mali (EUTM Mali).

16/07/2013 Sources : EMA

Du 03 au 06 juillet 2013, la Force Licorne a préparé puis escorté un convoi entre Abidjan et Niellé (Côte d’Ivoire), au profit de l’opération Serval. Premier convoi de véhicules vers le Mali depuis le déclenchement de l’opération Serval en janvier 2013, il a pour but de renouveler une partie du parc de véhicules qui souffre de conditions d’utilisation particulièrement éprouvantes.

L’opération a consisté pour la Force Licorne à assurer l’escorte d’un convoi d’une quarantaine de véhicules (porte-engins blindés chargés avec engins de terrassement, véhicule de l’avant-blindé, chars AMX10RCR, grues, véhicules de transport logistique, véhicule de transport, P4 et TRM 10000) débarqués une semaine plus tôt du port d’Abidjan puis stockés à Camp Port-Bouët, au profit de l’opération Serval.Pour cette mission, un poste de commandement tactique et un hélicoptère Fennec dédié aux évacuations médicales et pouvant ponctuellement participer à des missions de reconnaissance pendant cette mission d’escorte, ont été spécialement déployés.

Après avoir traversé Yamoussoukro, Bouaké et Niakaramandougou, l’escorte est arrivée le 05 juillet à sa destination finale, Niellé, ville frontalière avec le Mali. Les éléments de la force Serval, qui l’attendaient, ont ainsi pu prendre le relais jusqu’à Bamako.

Dès les premières heures du déploiement au Mali, la Force Licorne a apporté une contribution opérationnelle et logistique conséquente au profit de l’opération Serval. Aujourd’hui, tout en poursuivant les missions qui lui sont habituellement dévolues, elle poursuit ce soutien en participant entre autre au désengagement de la Force Serval.