Vergennes
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It aimed to intimidate France and its president.
According to our information, the French frigate Aquitaine, posted in the Eastern Mediterranean as part of Operation Chammal, was flown over the weekend by at least one Russian aircraft displaying an "aggressive" posture, according to the term we heard , characterized by two elements. The first is the proximity: the aircraft has passed closer to the French ship. While such Russian visits are not rare in the vicinity of French ships, they are generally at a reasonable distance, thus marking an attitude clearly unambiguous, if not friendly. This time, the visit was clearly more belligerent.
The second significant element is that the plane was, this time, armed with its weapons, turning the passage into a very clear message to the French authorities, and particularly to the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, Chief of the Armed Forces. The ship is one of the jewels of the French navy, equipped with equipment that has never been used in operational conditions, the naval cruise missile, or MdCN. He can hit a target more than 1,000 kilometers from his starting point and would be able to be used in strikes against the Bashar al-Assad regime; this option had already been mentioned in 2017. The specialized site Sea and Marine studies here this hypothesis of use of a weapon which would thus know its baptism of the fire.
http://www.lepoint.fr/editos-du-poi...-par-un-avion-russe-10-04-2018-2209474_53.php