The link below details a very realistic military exercise conducted by the American, British and French navies. The drill was to test how the three navies could coordinate together to provide close air support during an attack on ground targets.
The drill was quite realistic and it also revealed that the American and French navies have taken steps to work closely together in a wartime situation. The drill included having French and American warplanes landing and taking off from each other’s carriers and even had an American support crew practice performing emergency engine repairs to a French warplane which landed on an American carrier. US and French warplanes in the exercise operated from an American and a French aircraft carrier while the British warplanes operated from bases in the UK. French warplanes which are nuclear-capable practiced operating from the USS Harry Truman while American warplanes practiced operating from the French carrier, the Charles De Gaulle.
This exercise indicates that these three NATO nations envision a possible need to operate together under wartime conditions. Practicing the operation of each other’s warplanes from the other nation’s carrier is a logical exercise if one anticipates heavy combat where an aircraft carrier could be sunk. This exercise pioneered the ability of American and French warplanes to be hosted by the carrier of a different NATO nation if one carrier in a joint task force were to be lost in warfare. The article below also discusses the weak UN sanctions effort against Iran which Iran has brushed off and which is almost surely a useless diplomatic effort to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Could these NATO navies be practicing for a possible future joint-operation vs. Iran in a Mideast war or was this a routine NATO exercise? Both options could be true. War tensions are rising in the Mideast so this kind of naval wartime exercise by major NATO nations appears to be timely.
http://www.debka.com/article/8844/
