The French are also sending a proper helicopter...............Gazelle.
Ares:
France sends Tigers to Libya
France has sent a number of Tiger helicopters to Libya, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé has confirmed. The helicopters, 12 it is believed but this number could also include some Gazelles, are on board the Tonnerre, the newest of the French navy's BPC Mistral-class multimission ships which sailed from the Mediterranean port of Toulon last Thursday. A spokesman for the armed forces chief of staff said that “for the moment the Tonnerre is not engaged in operations in Libya” but added that if it were to become so “this would not contradict UN Resolution 1973” which basically authorizes force to be used to protect Libyan civilians.
Juppé, briefly defense minister before being appointed to the foreign ministry, largely overshadows Gérard Longuet who holds the defense portfolio, and it was he who explained that the helicopters would “enable us to adapt our ground attack capacities more precisely,” or, in other words, target objectives that are too difficult or risky to be targeted by combat aircraft because surrounded by civilian buildings.The HAP version of the Tiger which the French currently have can fire 68mm rockets and four air-to-air Mistral missiles. It also has a 30mm gun.
Juppé was speaking in the margins of a European Union Foreign Ministers' meeting in which the EU decided to strengthen sanctions against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi “in order to stop his regime from renewing his military arsenal and recruiting mercenaries.”