Abu Dhabi: Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs, on Wednesday stepped on board the French nuclear aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. He was received by Rear Admiral Eric Chaperon and Michel Miraillet, France’s Ambassador to the UAE.
Shaikh Abdullah toured various sections of the carrier and was briefed on its specifications. He was also briefed on specifications of the Rafale Marines combat aircraft.
The ship is on a five-day visit to Abu Dhabi. The French Navy will conduct operation ‘Big Fox’, a joint exercise with the UAE Armed Forces this month.
The sea is a “black box” which can shed light on terrorist activities, a senior French naval officer told Gulf News during a media visit to the ship on Wednesday. He was referring to the device which records aircraft’s flight data.
Terrorist activities are like a chain whose major link is mostly in the sea, Captain Pierre Vandier, commanding officer of the Charles de Gaulle, said. That’s why a major task of naval ships is intelligence gathering, mainly using aircraft and helicopters, he said.
They gather information on suspicious vessels in international waters and share it with the respective naval forces in the region.
Vessels on dubious missions generally switch off the Automatic Integration System (AIS) that transmits the name, speed and cargo of the vessel.
“If they switch off that gadget, there will be something wrong. Our Rafale aircraft can capture picture and video of such vessels and transmit it to French Naval headquarters within 15 minutes,” the captain said.
Such intelligence gathering is very important and has aborted many terrorist strikes, he said without revealing any specific incidents or examples.
Senior French naval official Rear Admiral Chaperon said pirate attacks had reduced globally since 2012.
Piracy threat
“It does not mean that the piracy threat has disappeared,” Rear Admiral Chaperon said.
He said the joint efforts by governments around the world to combat piracy had paid off. Such efforts are visible in the Indian Ocean where almost all major nations have a naval presence. America, Russia, India, China, Korea, Japan and all European nations have a naval presence there. He was talking to reporters on board the ship.
The new generation nuclear aircraft carrier can sail more than 1,000 kilometres per day, It has a crew of about 2,000, of which about 20 per cent are women. The ship embarks 10 Rafale Marines, the most advanced combat aircraft in service in France, and several other combat aircraft.
Air Defence Destroyer Forbin, Anti-Submarine destroyer Jean de Vienne, Replenishment Tanker Meuse, Nuclear Attack Submarine and Atlantique 2 Maritime Patrol Aircraft are also part of the Carrier Strike Group that is visiting Abu Dhabi.
