The Royal Navy and Marine Nationale plan to deploy a large naval force in the Mediterranean in the fall of 2012 with aircraft carriers, amphibious vessels, destroyers and frigates.
Royal Navy will deploy its Response Force Task Group, which will include the Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH) HMS Ocean and Light Aircraft Carrier (CVL) HMS Illustrious used as helicotper carrier.
French Navy is expected to deploy its carrier battle group with the nuclear powered aircraft carrier (CVN) Charles de Gaulle, and probably an amphibious group, with a Mistral class amphibious assault ship.
Both navies will desploy destroyers, frigates and submarines to escort the capital ships of the common naval force as well as auxiliary ships to ressuply the large number of vessels. This deployement will also involve ground units: Royal Marines, French Marine Infantry (9th BLBMa) as well as several helicopter transport and combat helicotpers are expected to be detached to the various amphibious vessels and carriers.
The objective of this major deployement, is to enhance cooperation and interoperability between the two main European navies. Despite relations between Britain and France getting cold in recent weeks over European issues and despite the cancelation of the Cameron / Sarkozy meeting scheduled for December it seems like military cooperation between the two countries remains unaffected. As part of the defense agreement signed in November 2010, the two countries, discussed the establishment of a Franco-British expeditionary force.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
01/17/2012 14:14 ||
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#1
OOOOOOOO, will their fleet units collide like the French + Saudi Air Forces?
The moment Captain Francesco Schettino, commander of the stricken Costa Concordia cruise ship, refused to return to his vessel was recorded in their radio exchange.
Mr Schettino is in jail, accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. He denies all wrongdoing and was questioned by magistrates on Tuesday.
The audio recording, on Corriere della Sera's website, reflected the chaos and confusion in the minutes after the Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew, hit a rock off the Tuscany coast on Friday night and keeled over. Eleven people were killed and 24 are still missing.
The recording is full of background noises such as radio static, beeps and background noise of people and confusion. Some of the exchanges went as follows:
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#2
Reminds me of TV's great "GET SMART" Character SIEGFRIED from KAOS, aka "The First Man out of El Alamein".
As per CNN + FOX NEWS AM, the Italia Coast Guard insisted that they were now officially in charge of the situation because Capt. Schettino had already stated he had declared "abandon ship", + demanded to Capt. Schettino that he return to the vessel to organize + overwatch the lift + rescue of passengers to shore. THE CG EXPRESSED SHOCK + SURPISE THAT HE SCHETTINO WAS ALREADY ON SHORE WHILE THE MAJORITY OF THE CONCORDIA'S PASSENGERS WERE STILL BACK ON THE SHIP TRYING TO GET OFF.
Once again, "Captain goes down wid his Ship" + "Women, Children, + Elderly first", etc. Mariner-isms takes a beating wid this latest Cruise Ship incident in the Med.
FYI Capt. Schettino's proper decisions, or lack of same, as per safe ship maneuvers in narrow waters, are also dubious.
Radical Islam remains the most serious threat faced by Norway despite the attacks by an Islamophobe extremist who killed 77 people last summer, the chief of the security police said on Tuesday.
Janne Kristiansen, head of Norway's Police Security Service, said her agency would focus on broad-based dangers from home-grown Islamic extremism even though threats against public officials have risen since the July attacks, which targeted Norway's left wing.
"In recent years we have seen a development in which (Muslim) people raised in Norway become radicalized, and for whom Norway and Norwegian society are the enemy," she told a news conference. "These people have a lot of contact with extreme Islamists abroad. They travel to training camps in conflict areas and they travel to participate in armed combat before returning to Norway."
By George I think she gets it...
Responding to critics who have said the police are neglecting the threat from right-wing militants like Anders Behring Breivik, who admitted carrying out the July 22 attacks, she said the threat they represent is far smaller.
"The number of violent right-wing extremists is still low," she said.
She added that a rising tide of hate-filled debate on Internet sites brought "a significant source of uncertainty" to her overall threat assessment.
Politicians and their parties, she said, have seen a rise in the number and severity of threats since the July attacks and should expect the problem to continue when Breivik's high-profile trial begins on April 16.
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#1
2001 was a record in crimes of rape in Norway 109. Oslo had just about all of them. Three in other cities. 2011 was a record year for the cinema theater visits. The Troll Hunter (Trolljegeren) is a movie they have produced and it is the number one sold DVD Blue Ray product. Oil sales kept economy humming. They expect overall sales of oil to decrease 2012. They have introduced scanners at airports seeing increased potential for problems. Like England many who have fought in Arab spring are coming back to do whatever they will do. One English speaking person was amazed how well the Libyan rebels spoke English. Even had local sound to it.
#4
The more I think about it, the more Breivik's attack impresses me as a brilliant strategy, to the point where I half wonder if he developed the whole plan on his own.
Just looking at it as a military operation, he covered the bases as if he had followed a Soviet unconventional operational plan, which was the Russian version of the operations order that has long been used by the US military.
Importantly, he included a few details found in the Soviet scheme *not* found in the US version.
This is why I paid a great deal of attention to the assertion that he had traveled to a paramilitary training camp in Belarus several times. If they taught him planning there, that is the kind of planning they would teach him.
And were it a well planned operation, it performed like clockwork, doing exactly what he wanted it to do.
As an aside, this type of planning was first devised by Sun Tzu, and his basic format remains relatively unchanged as the best scheme ever devised to plan military operations. It is used by every modern army.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Career of Baltasar Garzón, who ordered the arrest of the Chilean dictator, could be over as he faces abuse of power charges
