The French Navy and the US Navy adopt a “strategic plan for interoperability”

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In September, when the French ambassador to the United States was recalled to Paris following the Australian submarine affair, the French Navy maintained its participation in the commemorations of the 240th anniversary of the – decisive – battle of Cheasapeake, whose the issue was won at the expense of the Royal Navy by Admiral de Grasse.

Thus, at the time, the nuclear attack submarine [SNA] Améthyste was on a stopover in the United States… As was the multi-mission frigate [FREMM] Aquitaine. And Admiral Pierre Vandier, the Chief of Staff of the French Navy [CEMM] attended, in Annapolis, a ceremony dedicated to the memory of the French sailors who fell during the battle of Cheasapeake [“founding act of the friendship between France and the United States,” he later wrote via Twitter].

The diplomatic storm caused by the announcement of the AUKUS alliance [Australia, United Kingdom, United States] and the cancellation of the contract that Canberra had awarded to the French Naval Group for the construction of twelve submarines will therefore not have not shaken the – strong – ties that unite the French Navy and the US Navy. Especially since, in particular in the aero-naval field, the first needs the second... even if, this year, the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle took the lead, for the second time since 2015, of a "task American force in the Persian Gulf.

And these links will be further strengthened after the signing, on December 17, of a "strategic interoperability framework" [Strategic Interoperability Framework - SIF] by Vice-Admiral Christophe Lucas, coordination authority for international relations within the of the Navy, and his American counterpart, Vice-Admiral Bill Merz.

"This plan, the result of work initiated two years ago, sets specific objectives intended to continuously improve, over the next 20 years, the interoperability between the two navies and includes in particular a targeted effort on the top of the operational spectrum. : mastery of ocean spaces and projection of power. It facilitates contacts between the staffs and provides for the establishment of the framework authorizing the exchange of information and classified data”, briefly explained the French Navy.

And she added: "This corpus therefore marks a very significant step forward and the culmination of a common desire to strengthen cooperation between the two navies, despite the rough seas that the two countries have recently crossed".

For its part, the US Navy did not give the details of this strategic interoperability plan, except that it will help "organize the way in which the two navies can support each other. each other on their mutual capabilities and operational objectives moving forward" and that it will facilitate "coordinated efforts between echelons and regional commands around the world".