Blogs

From 3 to 14 April 2017 in the Western Mediterranean, 1 000 French soldiers participate in SKRENVIL operational training. This joint exercise between the French Army and the Navy is designed to ensure amphibious deployment procedures. As part of this operational training, an amphibious group is deployed in the Mediterranean. It is composed of the Dixmude (Projection and Command Ship,BPC), Cassard (Antiaircraft Frigate, FAA), Montcalm (Anti-submarine Frigate, FASM) and the Mediterranean demining group (GPD Med).

29 March 1967: 50 years ago, Le Redoutable, first French SSBN to ensure the permanence of nuclear deterrence, was launched in the presence of General de Gaulle in France, single autonomous nuclear military power in Europe. Nuclear deterrence is designed to protect people against any aggression of state origin against our vital interests, wherever it may come from and whatever form it may take. Strictly defensive, its use is conceivable only in extreme circumstances of self-defense.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker called for a common EU defence headquarters in September after the Brexit vote, resurrecting an idea that had circulated in the EU for years. Today, the European Union has approved plans for a military headquarters to coordinate overseas security operation, foreign and defence ministers of the 28 member states (Britain having long opposed it) "unanimously" backed the project.

The Swedish government has decided to reintroduce military conscription, abolished in 2010. It means that 4,000 men and women will be called up for service from 1 January 2018, selected from about 13,000 young people born in 1999, who will be asked to undergo a military assessment. The 13,000 who undergo the military tests will be a mixture of volunteers and conscripts. The Swedish recruitment system will be modelled on Norway's. In September, a Swedish garrison was restored to Gotland, a big island lying between the Swedish mainland and the three ex-Soviet Baltic states.

On March 1 st EUCAP Nestor, the European Union Maritime Capacity Building Mission to Somalia, will be renamed “EUCAP Somalia”, the EU Capacity Building Mission in Somalia.
A Council decision published on December 12th 2016 in the Official Journal of the European Union, states in article 1, EUCAP Somalia has been established as a Capacity Building Mission in Somalia.

The Danish government is paying sickness and disability benefits to Danish citizens fighting in Syria for Islamic State. The PET (Danish Security and Intelligence Service) has identified 28 jihadis, Danish citizens fighting in Syria since 2014, who had been granted an early pension, or ‘førtidspension’, because they were judged too sick or disabled to work, and then gone to take part in the war in Syria.

An internal Defence Ministry report reveals more details about an unfolding scandal at a Baden-Württemberg barracks involving "sadistic rituals". The internal report seen by Spiegel and DPA describes a female soldier being forced by her trainers to pole dance and also separately being touched in intimate areas.

Aircraft carrier "São Paulo" (ex R99 Foch, built in France between 1957 and 1960) was incorporated into the Brazilian Navy in 2000, based on an opportunity purchase from the French National Navy, for US$30 million — no aircraft were included in the price — with the primary purpose of replacing the former "Minas Gerais" Light-Aircraft, at the end of its useful life, and providing the evolution of airborne operations using fixed wing aircraft and A-4 Skyhawk jet propulsion.