A French Air Force Mirage 2000D flying over Mali being refueled from an USAF KC-135R tanker. © USAF
International Air Operations in Mali By David Oliver
On August 1, 2014, France launched Operation Barkhane at the request of Mali’s government as extremist groups pushed south and threatened to overrun the capital, Bamako. The mission was simple, to stabilise the country. Not long after the creation of Barkhane, a terror group known as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) formed operating mainly in eastern Mali and neighbouring regions of Niger and Burkina Faso.
T
he French-led Operation Barkhane succeeded Operation Serval in August 2014, but with a much wider geographic focus. The force, with more than 5,000 soldiers, is spread out between Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad. While its headquarters is in N’Djamena, Chad’s capital, it also has fighter aircraft and bases for intelligence collection and operations in Niger’s capital Niamey, Agadez, Arlit, Tillabéry, and several other sites, as well as around 1,500 troops in northern Mali scattered between the large base at Gao, others at Kidal, Timbuktu, and Tessalit, and more recently a base at Gossi, closer to central Mali, as well as along the border with Burkina Faso. France’s Special Operations Task Force for the region, Operation Sabre, is in Burkina Faso.
The airland assets play a key role in the conduct of operations providing the force with indispensable flexibility and long-distance crossing capabilities to defeat the terrorists. The force is made up of seven French Air Force Mirage 2000C/D multirole fighter aircraft and three MQ-9 Reaper longrange unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) Escadron de drones 1/33 Belfort for reconnaissance and surveillance of targets, and feeds images in real time to deployed units. Since 2019 they have been armed with GBU-12 laser-guided bombs when required. Safran is committed to delivering the S15 Patroller medium-altitude long-endurance UAV to the French army by early 2022 for use in Operation Barkhane. EDR | May/June 2021
21