The French
 

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ec9fe5d0e.jpeg

Are the French refusing tankers back to the UK?

How friendly an act is that?


WWW

Not sure what you are talking about, but what would relations between France and the US Air Force have to do with friendship between France and England ?

Perhaps because the aircraft concerned are based in England....

Jack

The French shall always be the French.

They were not helpful when the USAF out of the UK knocked on Qadaffi's Door as you recall.

And they wonder why other people/nations sometimes consider them as not very helpful/unfriendly.

I wish I understood what this Thread is about.

Is there evidence somewhere that FR denied use of their airspace, which is the only thing I can derive so far.

I saw these tankers coming out of Aviano and watched them via FR24 to somewhere north of Majorca. I think they then went on to somewhere near Rota and then I saw perhaps a couple of them later in the day over northern France northbound, presumably going back to Mildenhall (cant say for sure as I was otherwise occupied). I think some of the C17's have been tanking in the Western Med/Gib area and carrying on eastwards.

An Italian B-762 tanker and an RAF MRTT returning right now with two C-5's after action in the Middle East.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....709f3143c5.jpg

The combat MC-130J's are going across France on their return to Mildenhall so I doubt the Quid's would be refused passage.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....83a8203664.jpg

OK, so Ops Normal.

”Delete Subscription”

In fact they were. This is why they had Galaxy air transport available when they needed it to move things south to Tchad right afterwards.

Another point to note is that many military transit sorties across Europe are done on standing clearances. These typically have constraints on them, e.g. on what cargoes can be carried, which operations can be directly or indirectly supported, etc. Where none of the standing clearances are applicable, an application has to be made for a specific clearance. This can sometimes be a rubber-stamp at office level (eg 'we want to carry 5% more ammunition than the standing clearance allows') but other times it could be ministerial or even presidential (eg 'we want to do something secret and we'll only tell the big boss what it is'). The latter takes a finite time and just asking the question could pose an OPSEC risk. So if there is an alternative (longer) way around that needs no special action then it can be quicker and safer just to fly that. And it avoids putting friendly air forces in a potentially difficult position.

[Last time I had cause to plan a transit, the French had a large selection of standing clearances on offer. The Swiss and Austrians (one of which would need to be crossed enroute from Aviano to Mildenhall on a direct route avoiding France) had none.]

Less Hair.....which history book you reading from?

The French refused to let the F-111's cross French Territory adding 2600 miles to the Aardvark's flight on that raid.

They refused to allow flight in either direction....armed enroll to the target or void of bombs on the way back.

Ironic then that it was Sarkozy (at the urging of Bernard-Henri Levy) who made all the running in 2011 with a reticent Obama reluctantly 'leading from behind' and David Cameron eagerly jumping aboard!

Yep, they're being a bit French at the moment... I have no idea about the overflight stories but it is true that there is an inconvenient side to the French, you know, stuff like being an independent nation, getting on with Operation Barkhane, that sort of thing....though I must admit I do wish there was a bit less "en greve"

I would have thought it prudent not to be overflying residential areas whilst loaded for bear SAS, similarly going home they could be carrying hang ups.

Years ago I was flying down the Persian Gulf in an airliner and a U.S. military aircraft with a SAM callsign (89th Wing VIP flight out of Andrews AFB near Washington DC) was on the frequency. The controller (Bahrain?) gave the plane a direct that had him flying over Qatar. The SAM flight said they wanted to stay on the flight plan. The controller said that U.S. military flights request the shortcut all the time, it's not a problem. The SAM flight declined the reroute but thanked the controller.

I asked a colleague who flew right seat on Air Force One during the Clinton Administration why the SAM flight couldn't take the shortcut. He said that the SAM flights were considered 'state aircraft' even though they were military and required specific overflight clearance to go closer than 12 miles off the coast of another nation. Apparently a lot of effort is put into obtaining these clearances for each mission.

Little footnote about the Libya raid:
I was standing outside my house in S. Portugal when a bunch of F111s went over very low and fast, heading south-east. Cutting the corner? Except that it was a couple of days after the strike. Never saw anything in the media about it.