At Cherbourg on last March 21, French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced for the coming months a significant force reduction in France's nuclear deterrence posture with a total number of nuclear warheads reduced to 300 only. The French Air Force will be carrying the brunt of the presidential cuts decision while the French Navy should fare much better with her 4 SNLE-NG submarine force and her two carrier-borne Super-Etendard S5 strike squadrons.
In compliance with the seeping recommendations due to be listed in the announced new Defence White Book — which should be ready by May or June of this year —, France's military is to be rapidly "slimmed down" to a new level more in line with the country's stagnating economy. The prime target is a 30 % reduction in nuclear means deployed by the French Air Force, a move therefore heralding the imminent disbandment of Escadron de Chasse 3/4 “Limousin” based at Istres near Marseille in southern France.
A total of 75 Mirage 2000N nuclear strike fighters were ordered from Dassault Aviation in the mid eighties to vector the ASMP thermonuclear supersonic cruise missile of which 111 were ordered from Matra (now MBDA) to be fitted with a 3>300 kt warhead.
The first Mirage 2000Ns became operational 20 years ago at Luxeuil AB. Over the years three strike squadrons were equipped with the Mirage 2000N/ASMP duo: EC 1/4 "Dauphiné" and EC 2/4 “La Fayette" with a total of some 40 aircraft at Luxeuil AB, and EC 3/4 “Limousin" at Istres AB with about 20 machines. Attrition and wear have brought the total of available Mirage 2000N today down to about 60 airframes many of which are plaqued with wing cracks due to intense high speed all weather low level training. Indeed, the three Mirage 2000N squadrons of the French Air Force are certainly by NATO standards, the best trained and most efficient weapon given to a commander. However, due to the particular nature of their mission, these squadrons cannot satisfyingly fulfill any other mission, therefore becoming too heavy a tool for current asymetric combat mission requirements.
In comparison, the new Rafale F3 fighter-bomber to be introduced in Armée de l'Air service as of 2009-2010 will be able of a much wider range of missions, including nuclear strike with the new MBDA ASMP-A missile toting the heavier TNA thermonuclear warhead with a modular 3 to 300 kt yield. Current plans call for two squadrons of Rafale F3 swing-rôle fighters to be operational with their ASMP-A complement in 2014, at which date the last two Mirage 2000N squadrons at Luxeuil AB will stand down and the aerodrome closed.
As a direct consequence of the reduction in the Mirage 2000N force level, the Commandement des Forces Aériennes Stratégiques or French Strategic Command should ultimately be disbanded after 2010 as the Armée de l'Air's air launched nuclear capacity is to be distributed more or less evenly among the existing Dassault Rafale F3 squadrons, both at Saint Dizier and Mont-de-Marsan AB, to start with.
The current trend, in what is to be regarded as the largest reorganization of French military forces since the end of the war in Algeria 45 years ago, is to focus on a clear reduction of French air assets while giving more importance to naval and land forces to cope with pressing sea surveillance needs abroad and for land operations in Africa and Afghanistan where France will deploy an extra 1,000 men as of this summer.
For many NATO experts, the present European air forces are clearly unfit to deal with the present threats overseas, with large amounts of little used fighters and fighter-bombers inherited from the Cold war era impacting with the slow delivery of new and expensive (and often useless) models (Eurofighters, Rafales and Gripens), while there exists a truly insufficient airlift capacity, both in terms of cargo aircraft and helicopters.
It is obvious at this point that for the French Air Force a 30% shrink in the Mirage 2000N force today will allow for such urgent programmes as the A400M to take over more rapidly, especially since the French tactical airlift capacity is being given these days as "melting like snow in hot Spring" with the C-160 Transall squadrons loosing more and more aircraft every year to fatigue and obsolescence. [Paris - 03-24-2007]
