The Diplomacy of the Jaguar French Airpower in Postcolonial African Conflicts Wright Flyer Paper No. 39

The legacy of its former status as a colonial power has left France with a strong commitment in Africa. To secure its interests and aspire to a great foreign policy, France has used the cooperation agreements with its former colonies to maintain its influence on the continent, leading the French military to intervene in multiple African crises since decolonization in 1960. This paper addresses the use of airpower during the French military operations in Africa since 1960. Using case study methodology, it emphasizes the operational level of war and analyzes the use of the different French army, air force, and naval aviation operational roles; the adaptation of equipment to conditions in Africa; and the changes in the French-African policy that have influenced the use of airpower. The study argues that successes in Mauritania and Chad in the 1970s and 1980s convinced the French military to increase its reliance on airpower. The change in policy following the Rwandan crisis in 1994 did not alter this trend. On the contrary, the synergy between French airpower and special forces was critical in securing France's objectives during operations in the former Zaire in 2003 and the Central African Republic in 2007. However, the ongoing intervention in the Ivory Coast proved that a lack of airpower integration planning can lead to numerous challenges for the French military. To address that issue, the French air force needs to develop an operational doctrine that the joint force commanders can rely on to better integrate the use of airpower with the early stages of joint planning and get the full benefit of its flexibility, responsiveness, and firepower during the operation.