French Navy Hails Success Of Indo-Pacific Exercise
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Thirteen vessels from nine nations came together for Exercise La Perouse 2025, a French-led multilateral maritime training activity in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
The latest iteration of the biennial manoeuvres were centred around the Indonesian archipelago in the Malacca, Sunda and Lombok straits. As per a recent French Navy press statement, every day roughly one third of world trade transits these passages.
La Perouse lasted three weeks and was led by ships from the French navy’s carrier battle group (GAN) based around aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle. In the Malacca Strait, Royal Malaysian Navy patrol boat FFG Lekir, corvette Gagah Samudera, and Singaporean patrol boat Independence conducted exercises with a French air defence frigate.
In the Sunda Strait Royal Navy offshore patrol vessel HMS Spey, Canadian frigate HMCS Ottawa, and Indian guided missile destroyer INS Mumbai teamed up with GAN multi-mission frigates.
Indian Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and two French Atlantique 2 planes joined the exercise, operating off on the Indonesian island of Java, from where they conducted surveillance flights.
In the final phase of La Perouse 25, in the Lombok Strait Australian destroyer HMAS Hobart was supplied by GAN ship Jacques Chevallier, the first time the two navies had cooperated in this way. Meanwhile a “tactical evolution exercise” was carried out by a French air defence frigate and Indonesian frigate Raden Eddy Martadinata.
The French Navy’s press statement noted: “La Perouse 25 allowed the participating navies to significantly increase their interoperability and common knowledge in a strategic area for maritime trade on a global scale.
“With this mission with multiple interactions and objectives, the GAN demonstrates that it is a tool of naval superiority, power projection and autonomous situation assessment, capable of operating in a complex strategic environment.
“The deployment of this military capability underlines France's commitment to freedom of action and maritime and air movement on all the seas and oceans of the globe.”
And Commander Paul Caddy, HMS Spey’s Commanding Officer, added: “Exercise La Pérouse has been a fantastic training opportunity for Spey.
“We have made the most of the chance to exercise the operations room and gunnery teams in demanding tactical serials, not something we have many chances to do during our typical constabulary patrols and defence engagement tasking.
“Putting the crew through their paces in response to a major fire while continuing to conduct evasive manoeuvres and simulate engaging low flying aircraft in coordination with partner vessels during an air defence exercise was an excellent test of whole ship reactions.”
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You can read more details on the French Navy website, the Royal Navy website, and the Defence Australia website