In a recent press conference held at the French ministry of Armed Forces, Rear Admiral Cédric Chetaille – the French Navy’s deputy chief for operations, and director of seabed capability development – revealed that France’s seabed warfare strategy includes offensive means, in addition to defense ones.
By Martin Manaranche and Xavier Vavasseur
For the first time the Admiral confirmed that this strategy also has an offensive component, notably in the “actions” section of the strategy. Answering a question by Naval News on whether the French seabed warfare strategy is only defensive or if it includes offensive means as well, RADM Chetaille explained:
“So when it comes to our means of action or our means of surveillance, it’s easy to imagine them being purely defensive. But that’s not the case. In fact, anything we can gather in terms of information on the enemy’s infrastructure, on the enemy’s point of weakness or on the enemy’s militarized systems on the seabed […] will obviously be the subject of offensive action.”
Rear Admiral Cedric Chetaille
“*These offensive actions will either be carried out by our future robots, or, depending on the depth, by special actions by other means, such as naval special actions or mining. So, obviously, there’s an offensive aspect to this seabed warfare strategy.*” Rear Admiral Chetaille added.
RADM Chetaille is the senior French naval officer responsible for delivering the seabed warfare capability.
For the record, the French MoD introduced a “seabed warfare strategy” in February 2022 to develop a sovereign capability to know, monitor and act at depths of down to 6,000 meters in order to protect and deter any potential underwater threats to critical underwater infrastructures (CUI) and other strategic assets. The latter is divided into three parts:
Knowledge of the seabed;
Surveillance of strategic infrastructures and areas of interest;
Action on, from and to the seabed.
To reach and operate at depths of 6,000 meters, the French Navy has been conducting a series of operations at sea with various French and foreign systems since 2022 . The aim of the Calliope operations is to test the capabilities of off-the-shelf equipment, train sailors in the use of this equipment, and develop the doctrine of use in this special environment. The French already ordered ROV developed by Louis Dreyfus TravOcean and A-18M AUV from Exail at this end. This need is all the more pressing following the recent acts of sabotage in the Baltic, which have affected energy and gas networks between European countries.
The Admiral also announced that there is a desire to go further in the outlook. At the time, the actions were focused on the French coastline, now there is a wish to extend the scope of action as these operations until now have always mixed operational objectives with training and experimentation objectives.
He mentioned in particular the activity of the Russian vessel Yantar, which took part in a search operation for the MV Ursa Major wreck which sank in the Mediterranean, and the possibility of going to observe more precisely what activities it may have carried out there.
Furthermore, there is an objective to support naval forces in integrating this strategy fully into their operations. To achieve this, training is necessary, and the Polaris 25 exercise to be held in June will also include maneuvers and confrontations on the seabed. The feedback from the latter should assist in knowing how they can make the most of this new capability.
In addition to the protection of its own critical underwater infrastructures (CUI), France also participates to the protection of the NATO-members’ ones in the Baltic Sea via the NATO mission Baltic Sentry. On this subject, NATO has just created a dedicated group – Task Force X – composed of autonomous systems to detect and counter underwater threats. In this frame, the French Minister just announced the joint participation with Sweden to the latter in the provision of “additional capabilities”.
“France and Sweden are joining forces to provide additional capabilities for the deployment of Task Force X, NATO’s fleet of marine surveillance drones in the Baltic. This is an important step towards strengthening our presence in a strategic area for our collective defence.” Sebastien Lecornu, French Minister of Armed Forces.
Cooperation with the US Navy
RADM Chetaille also explained that the French Navy is cooperating with the U.S. Navy on seabed warfare. In June 2022, a joint declaration of intent was inked by the French and American defense ministers with a view to “strengthen our interoperability in terms of surveillance, security and action on the seabed.”
RADM Chetaille, last month, visited U.S. Naval Base Kitsap to meet with Capt. Michael Dolbec, commander, Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Group (UUVGRU) 1 and Capt. David Brooks, Plans, Policy, and International Engagement Director at Commander Submarine Forces Atlantic Fleet. According to the French Navy, the objective of this meeting was to discuss developments in the two navies in the field of seabed warfare, including CUI protection. The visit included a presentation of capability roadmaps, exchanges of employment concepts, a visit to drone workshops, and a presentation of data and performance analysis tools.
“This fruitful exchange provided an opportunity to discuss areas of cooperation at sea between our two countries in the field of seabed management” the French Navy added.
French Navy US Navy seabed warfare cooperation
RADM Chetaille visiting UUVGRU 1 at Naval Base Kitsap. French Navy picture.