The ships of Mission JEANNE D’ARC of the French Navy (French: Marine Nationale) recently docked at Changi Naval Base from 18 to 22 March as one of the port calls of their 5-month long training mission. The port call highlights the strong bilateral relationship between the French and Singapore armed forces, and an opportunity for both to conduct interoperability exercises.
01. LHD (Landing Helicopter Dock) Dixmude
02. FLF (Frégate Légère Furtive) La Fayette
Mission Background
The mission is an annual joint deployment to provide officer cadets with operational training at sea by being fully integrated into the crews of the ships deployed. The three main objectives of the mission are:
1. Train the future generation of naval officers to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow
2. Deploying to areas of strategic interests, ensuring freedom of navigation, and protecting the sovereignty of France’s overseas territories
3. Strengthening interoperability between the French Navy and Army, and with regional partners in both bilateral and multilateral formats
The mission task group was in the past carried out by the helicopter carrier, FS Jeanne d’Arc, till its last deployment in 2010. While the ship is no longer around, the spirit remains,continuing the tradition across generations of French Navy officers.
JEANNE D’ARC 2023 set sail from the Toulon naval base for its 5-month circumnavigation journey, and this year will include the first crossing of the Panama Canal by a French LHD. The ships involved in the mission are the LHD (Landing Helicopter Dock) Dixmude and FLF (French: Frégate Légère Furtive) La Fayette, together with about 800 sailors and soldiers. 160 cadets and trainee officers from the French and foreign navies are embarked as part of their training, toegther with a French Army (French: Armée de Terre) embedded tactical group (GTE) composed of 120 soldiers and 40 vehicles, complemented with Gazelle helicopters and soldiers from the French Army Light Aviation (ALAT).
Commitment and Relationships
03. Her Excellency, Ms Minh-Di Tang, French Ambassador to Singapore
At a press conference onboard the LHD Dixmude on 21 March, the French Ambassador to Singapore, Her Excellency, Ms Minh-Di Tang, highlighted the importance of the traning mission as an operational deployment with important objectives. “It affirms France’s sovereignty in its overseas territories, enforces freedom of navigation, combats piracy, drug trafficking and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. One of the other objectives is the strengthening of the co-operation with like-minded countries in the multilateral format by participating in several operations and exercises in the Indian Ocean, and in the biltaeral format by engaging with our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific – India, Indonesia, Australia and, of course, Singapore.”
On the defence relationship between France and Singapore, she said, “With Singapore, the depth of the defence partnership between our two countries have never ceased to increase, from the establishment of a training squadron of the RSAF in France exactly 25 years ago, to the signature of the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement in 2022. This paved the way for more operational interactions. And yesterday, our two ground forces exercised together for the first time. It is a significant milestone in our bilateral defence partnership.”
“The war in Ukraine does not undermine our commitment to the Indo-Pacific region. France’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific remains on course because international law needs to be defended everywhere, be it in the Ukraine or in the Indo-Pacific. Because we intend to stay credible partners, which means being consistent in our engagement.”
Highlighting France’s being granted the status of observer to the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus), she said, “Our intention is to bring added value to this forum and thereby support the centrality of ASEAN within the Indo-Pacific space. In the midst of great power rivalry and increasing polarisation, France’s strategy, like the strategy of the European Union, relies on co-operation, openness and multilateralism. And our partnership with Singapore is all the more valued in this context.”
04. Rear Admiral Geoffroy d’Andigné, Joint Commander of the French Armed Forces in Asia-Pacific (ALPACI) and French Polynesia
“It is the visible demonstration that France is able to project forces that far from the mainland with a highly capable group of units,” highlighted Rear Admiral Geoffroy d’Andigné, Joint Commander of the French Armed Forces in Asia-Pacific (ALPACI) and French Polynesia. “This tour also shows that France is assuming the defense of its sovereign interest in its overseas territories, to protect its populations, all being French citizens. The group will even patrol around Clipperton [Island] off the coast of Mexico.”
He continued, “In the Pacific, France has the biggest and largest EEZ [Exclusive Economic Zone], that is 9 million square kilometres. Our commitment to the security of the region is a reality, on a daily basis with the armed forces in Polynesia and Caledonia, and the deployment of French forces coming from the mainland, just like the JEANNE D’ARC mission, but also like PEGASE, and RASTABAN with Rafale operations deployed here in Singapore.”
“HADR [Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief] also is a major field of co-operation in the region. France with the FRANZ [FRench, Australian, New Zealand] Agreement, passed with the two countries, is ready to provide assistance. FRANZ was born 30 years ago, and for this anniversary, France has the presidency of this organisation until July. Under FRANZ, we coordinate for Vanuatu a few weeks ago when the country was devastated by two hurricanes and an earthquake of 6.5 magnitude at the beginning of March. We did also operations with the natives of Tonga, with the Hunga Tonga eruption last year.”
Rounding up his address, Rear Admiral Geoffroy said, “Such a deployment will leverage all what I am trying to do in my area of responsibility of Asia-Pacific. And this year, compared to last year, there will be even more deployments of French assets. France remain committed to the security of the region at a high level, but JEANNE D’ARC is a special ramp up to that commitment.
05. Captain Emmanuel Mocard, Commanding Officer, LHD Dixmude
Rounding up the press conference, Captain Emmanual Mocard, Commanding Officer of the LHD Dixmude, provided some details of the activities the mission had conducted. “On March 2nd, as part of the European mission Atalanta, the La Fayette and the Dixmude simultaneously seized illegal substances on dhows which were navigating in the Arabian Sea. More than 200kg of methamphetamines, around 600kg of cannabis and around 300kg of heroin, that is to say one ton of illegal drugs, were seized in a single day,” he said. “During the last call in Kochi in India, the 120 soldiers of the embedded tactical group of the army, joined the 91st Brigade of the Indian infantry for a four day joint training devoted to the assistance and rescue to populations.”
”These past few days, the JEANNE D’ARC group conducted the multinational exercise La Pérouse in the Gulf of Bengal with Indian, American, Australian, British and Japanese warships, as well as the Canadian Navy headquarters. Lastly, here in Singapore, our soldiers trained with its Singaporean partners during a weapons training and live fire exercise, while French and Singaporean sailors share their VBSS (Visit, Board, Search and Seizure) procedures when facing suspicious vessels.”
”This call fully reflects the quality of bilateral military relationships between France and Singapore. As we set sail, we will continue our interactions with the Singaporean navy on the occasion of a joint manoeuvre exercise with the RSS Dauntless,” he concluded.
LHD Dixmude
Named after the Belgian city of Diksmuide, in honour of the Fusiliers Marins who fought at the Battle of Diksmuide in 1914, LHD Dixmude is the third ship of the Mistral class of LHDs, and the third vessel to bear the name in the French Navy. The first vessel bearing the name was the Zeppelin airship, L72, built for the Imperial German Navy, and given to France as war reparations at the end of the First World War. She was renamed as the Dixmude and recommissioned into the French Navy. The Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Biter was lent to the French Navy in April 1945, where she was renamed as the Dixmude, and served until she was sunk as a target in June 1966.
06. The crest of the LHD Dixmude with her motto “Sacrifice yourselves, hold on”
07. The Coat of Arms of Jeanne d’Arc, assigned by King Charles VII in 1429
08. Ceremonial Bell of the LHD Dixmude
The onboard infirmary facilities are operated by personnel from the Armed Forces Health Service (SSA), and include 2 surgery rooms, radiology room, dental office, laboratory, telemedicine room, and 69 hospital beds. Together, they provide the equivalent capability of a hospital serving a population of 30,000.
09. Infirmary hospital beds
10. Infirmary surgery room
The amphibious well deck houses a Rapid Amphibious Landing Craft (EDA-R), a Standard Amphibious Landing Craft (EDA-S) and a utility landing craft (CTM). These crafts are operated by the Amphibious Flotilla (FLOPHIB) of the Naval Action Force (French: Force d’Action Navale; FAN), and enables the projection of troops, vehicles and freight for amphibious operations and humanitarian assistance if required.
11. EDA-R Rapid Amphibious Landing Craft
12. The EDA-S Standard Amphibious Landing Craft (foreground) will eventually replace the older CTM utility landing craft (background)
About 40 vehicles are also embarked on the vessel, used by the French Army’s embedded tactical group (GTE), and includes armoured personnel carriers (Véhicules de l’Avant Blindés; VAB), light armoured vehicles (Petits Véhicules Protégés; PVP / Véhicule Blindé Léger; VBL), GBC-type freight and personnel transport trucks, Arquus Trapper VT4 light utility vehicles, as well as various engineering vehicles (UNAC EGAME dozer, JCB EGRAP, D6).
13. Storage hanger with vehicles of the GTE
14. A fleet of VBL light armoured vehicles
The hanger deck has a capacity of up to 16 heavy helicopters. For its current mission, the complement is an Aérospatiale (now Airbus Helicopters) SA-365 Dauphin 2 helicopter operated by a detachment from Squadron 35F, and two Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopters from the 3rd Light Aviation Combat Helicopter Regiment (3e RHC) of the French Army. The Schiebel Camcopter S-100 VTOL UAS (Unmanned Air System), operated by CEPA/10S squadron, was involved in a successful counter-narcotics raid in the Arabian Sea on 2 March, helping to seize a ton of illegal drugs
15. Aérospatiale SA-365N Dauphin 2
16. The Schiebel S-100 VTOL UAS enhances the ISR capabilities of the task group
17. SA 342L1 (front) SA 342M1 (back) Aérospatiale Gazelles from the French Army Light Aviation
18. The Gazelle SA 342M1 is equipped with the SFIM APX M397 stabilised sight and armed with Euromissile HOT missiles
