Free Republic

USN The French Navy will reportedly retire the last of its Alouette III light helicopters after more than 55 years of service and at least a decade before its scheduled replacement arrives, as the Cold War-era helicopters have become a nightmare to maintain. The service plans to lease Airbus Helicopters AS365 Dauphins to fill the resulting gap until the European consortium's new H160 become available. French newspaper La Tribune first reported the decision on Jan. 19, 2018. At present, the French Navy’s aviation arm, or l'Aéronavale, has fewer than 20 of the aging Alouette IIIs, which first entered service in...

A contest is under way for the future of Europe and the battle lines have been drawn. From the east, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is spearheading a popular revolt against the EU’s ancien régime. And in the west, France’s Emmanuel Macron is leading its defence. Ahead of next year’s European Parliament elections, the Hungarian has thrown down the gauntlet to his rival, who has responded in kind. “If they want to see me as their main opponent, they’re right,” Macron said in August. This is an ideological war about the true nature of Europe. In one camp are the...

According to a confidential French intelligence document leaked to Le Figaro, a form of Muslim ghettoization is gaining ground within the French school system. The report says that Muslim students are effectively establishing an Islamic parallel society completely cut off from non-Muslim students.More than 1000 French supermarkets, including major chains such as Carrefour, have been selling Islamic books that openly call for jihad and the killing of non-Muslims.A report estimates that 60% of the prison population in France, or 40,000 prisoners, are “culturally or originally” Muslim.The Fresnes Penitentiary near Paris launched an experiment that involves isolating radical Muslim prisoners...

French soldiers began direct combat with Mali-based Islamists in the central town of Diabaly on Wednesday, according to security sources, while President François Hollande said the war effort was “necessary and legitimate” in a speech in Paris. French special forces began fighting on the ground with Islamist rebels in central Mali on Wednesday, according to regional security sources, six days after the European power launched an air offensive in the country. “The special forces are currently in Diabaly, engaged in fighting with the Islamists. The Malian army is also on site,” the AFP news agency quoted a Malian security source...

Bamako - A notorious Islamist militia leader known as "Red Beard" has been killed in French missile strikes in north-eastern Mali, a senior Malian army officer told AFP. Omar Ould Hamaha was a commander of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao) and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), armed groups which occupied northern Mali for almost ten months in 2012. "Omar Ould Hamaha, the terrorist of Malian nationality, is one of ten terrorists killed last week by French planes," the officer said late on Thursday. Hamaha's death was confirmed by a regional security source who said...

PARIS -- Emerging countries in need of modernizing their weaponry are rushing to buy state-of-the-art fighter jets, sparking a fierce marketing battle among the world's major defense contractors with government leaders even serving as pitchmen. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian hinted on a TV show on Dec. 19 that India and Persian Gulf nations will pick French fighters soon. Later that day, U.K. firm BAE Systems announced that the Eurofighter Typhoon combat jet is no longer being considered for adoption as the next-generation fighter by the United Arab Emirates. France's Rafale jet, made by Dassault, and America's Boeing F/A-18...

In Paris last month, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that France plans to spend $251 billion on its military. This amount was not just for 2014; it was for the next five years, meaning that Paris only plans to spend about $50 billion on its armed forces each year, or about 1.3 percent of GDP, down from 1.9 percent this year. As part of the reductions, France is cutting 34,000 troops from its ranks. Germany has also cut $10.7 billion out of its 2014 military budget, and recently announced that it would reduce the size of its military...

French Soldier Stabbed In Neck Near Paris Adam TaylorMay 25, 2013, 1:43 PM A soldier patrolling as part of France's Vigipirate anti-terrorist surveillance plan was stabbed in the neck this afternoon, Reuters reports. A police source told the news agency that the soldier would survive the attack. He is 23 years old, according to CNN. Le Parisien is reporting that the attacker was of Northern African appearance, aged around 30 years old and wearing a jilbab, a type of Islamic garment. The man quickly fled the scene and has not been caught. The attack happened in La Défense, to the...

10:40 p.m.French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says U.S. President Donald Trump should not comment on France’s domestic affairs, notably nationwide protests that began over fuel tax hikes meant to wean the nation off fossil fuels.President Emmanuel Macron withdrew the planned increase last week in a failed bid to appease sometimes violent protesters.Trump has tweeted twice on the issue, saying in one tweet this weekend that “the Paris agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris.”

The French government on Sunday (Dec 9) urged Mr Donald Trump not to interfere in French politics after the US president posted tweets about the protests rocking the country and attacked the Paris climate agreement. "We do not take domestic American politics into account and we want that to be reciprocated," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told LCI television. "I say this to Donald Trump and the French president says it too: leave our nation be.

France does not want to finance a populist Europe, the country’s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has indicated, just as the fight over the EU’s new long-term budget begins in earnest. These strong words were said in Paris on Wednesday during the annual conference of French ambassadors, a meeting at which the French head of diplomacy officially indicates the most important directions of the country’s foreign policy. 71-year-old Le Drian, who after the victory of French President Emmanuel Macron took the helm of French diplomacy, said that France and Germany intend to work out a common position on migration before...

NBC White House correspondent Peter Alexander asked the White House Monday if it believed Israel should "kill at will" during questions about violence at the Gaza Strip. White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said responsibility for the violence along the border fence "rests squarely with Hamas," the militant terrorist organization that governs the Palestinian territory. Mass protests have broken out again in response to the moving of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recently recognized by the U.S. as Israel's capital. Alexander quoted French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who issued a statement Monday calling on Israel to use proportionate...

The Geneva talks on Iranian nukes have turned into a "pull my finger" charade. Iran says that it's only making electricity, not nuclear bombs. The U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany are somehow all supposed to agree on reeling Iran in -- but let's face it: Russia and China are close Iranian allies and trading partners, while even Germany and France have significant geopolitical ties to Russia through, for example, the European defense conglomerate EADS and the Nord Stream pipeline running Russian gas into Europe. And Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman reportedly bragged to Russian journalists at the...