The Quest for Relevant Air Power

102 │ French Air Force
French Contributions to Western Air Campaigns
Desert Storm constituted a watershed for French defence policy
in general and for the FAF in particular. Politically, French participation
in Operation Desert Storm aroused tensions within the
republic’s leadership. While François Mitterrand was basically the
only one to support a troop deployment from the very beginning,
the minister of the interior, for instance, warned of military engagement
in an American-led operation and its consequences,
particularly with regard to Franco-Arab relations. 116 At the special
request of French defence minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement,
French combat aircraft were not based with American forces to
prevent the FAF from being too closely linked with the coalition.
Sympathetic to the Iraqi leadership, the defence minister wanted
to relegate French operations to purely defensive actions. In the
course of the campaign, he accordingly opposed strikes against
targets on Iraqi territory but was overruled by Mitterrand. On
27 January 1991, Chevènement finally resigned from his post. 117
The altered geostrategic environment and experience of Desert
Storm caused France to gradually abandon this isolationist stance.
There was a realisation that no European state could sustain any
longer the costs of an air force capable of intervening independently
in major crises. The FAF was from the very beginning
closely integrated in the air campaign over the Balkans and was
able to integrate itself swiftly into the American-led air campaign
over Afghanistan in early 2002. This change in paradigm is also
reflected in France’s involvement in cooperative endeavours, which
aspire—amongst others—to harmonise European air power. 118
In 1990 political reluctance to subordinate French forces to the
joint force commander during the force buildup led to a military
marginalisation of the FAF contingent. 119 Besides support aircraft,
the deployment contained 14 Jaguar, 10 Mirage 2000, and six
Mirage F1 CR reconnaissance aircraft. 120 At dawn on 17 January,
French Jaguar aircraft conducted low-level attacks against an Iraqi
air base in Kuwait. Though four aircraft were hit by ground fire,
they accomplished their mission and returned safely. 121 After these
offensive counterair strikes, the FAF targeted artillery sites in
Kuwait and Republican Guard units in southern Iraq. French
Jaguar aircraft conducted precision strikes by means of AS-30-L