SA Navy (SAN) fleet headquarters in Simon’s City subsequent week welcomes a 3 officer French Armed Forces delegation for an Train Oxide mid-term planning session.
This 12 months’s train is ready for November after cancellations led to by the COVID-19 pandemic and its related restrictions.
That there can be a joint Franco/South African naval train this 12 months was made identified final month (April) when the French job drive Jeanne d’Arc 2022 ported in Cape City throughout a five-month deployment focussed on coaching cadets from the French Naval School (École Navale). There has – up to now – been no data from both the Joint Operations Division of the SA Nationwide Defence Power (SANDF) or the SAN on precisely when and the place the train shall be held.
In response to a defenceWeb enquiry, Captain (Navy) Alexandre de Lapeyriere, the French defence attaché in South Africa, mentioned he and two officer colleagues from the French Armed Forces within the Southern Indian Ocean can be at SAN fleet headquarters to additional plan the convention which is “on monitor”.
Preferring to depart the nuts and bolts of the train as regards serials to the host nation’s nationwide defence drive, De Lapeyriere mentioned the intention is to “dedicate” air and naval property to Oxide 2022.
“South Africa and France, as Indian Ocean nations, share frequent pursuits together with maritime safety to a large extent of their respective EEZs (unique financial zones and unlawful trafficking.
“This train is vital to France and a possibility to enhance our capability to function bilaterally on operations resembling intervention, surveillance, catastrophe reduction, anti-pollution and search and rescue (SAR) the place army items are required,” he mentioned.
