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Capitaine de ColvetteRobin,who heads the Squadron 17F aboard Foch, was part of the NATO's operations in Kosovo last year. A naval pilot for over 12 years, he took off from the ship to carry out several bombing missions. Excerpts from his conversation withJosy Joseph:

How did you land up as the skipper of the 17th squadron?

I used to fly Super Etendard. I did the Naval Academy in '84 and then I graduated as a pilot in '89. Before that I was on ship as official of the deck. All pilots from the Naval Academy are trained to have a short period deck career after their pilot's career. So my career as a pilot is supposed to end next year. It is quite a short career, it is 13 years, which is the standard for an officer from the Naval Academy.

An officer who is just a pilot would normally have about 15 to 17 years as a pilot in the Navy. We are not trained in our Navy initially since our Navy has decommissioned all the trainee squadrons, so we are trained with our Air Force and we are trained with the US Navy. So we spent altogether two years in the Air Force and one to one-and-a-half-year with the US Navy before we first get to an attack squadron.

How was your experience in Kosovo?

It was something very challenging. We had to succeed. There was no room for failure. Because it was very controlled by the media, mistakes were not possible. As you know, we haven't been at war for many years. We also had to prove that our Navy was of the best standards. That was from the tactical point.

Psychologically, for us it was good to use our forces for what they were trained. But it was also something tough to know that you are dropping bombs eventually on civilian targets. We had no exact description of what the building we were attacking. Sometimes we would see people outside a building. But we were too far away to see whether they were civilians or troops. We had operational targets only.

You mean you were conscious about your attacks and targets?

The French demanded more detailed information about the targets than the US. Particularly about possible civilian casualties. We were very, very conscious. So we refused to attack the TV centre in Belgrade. We actually never had any targets in Belgrade. Anytime there were civilians who could be hurt or wounded, our targets were cancelled. So it was something done with a lot of caution, a lot of caution.

The French military bosses took such decisions?

Actually it was not the military that refused but the political authorities. As military, we were just doing the job. But we had to do the job as responsible [people], and it was very, very challenging. The targets were very small. It was a very demanding operation.

How did you land up for the mission? You are with the 17th squadron and the Kosovo operations were carried out by the 11th squadron.

Actually I was detached to the other squadron which was on the ship. This squadron was on shore, was preparing to relive the squadron on board. I relieved a pilot for a month during the bombing in Kosovo. I was detached. Right now I am the skipper of the 17th Squadron and I was attached to the 11th squadron. Those are the two attack Super Entendard squadrons. The French Navy has only two attack squadrons.

Where were you based all through the Kosovo crisis?

The action in Kosovo was managed from this ship. When we would bring some fresh troops to the Kosovo Sea for the Navy, it was on the ship. We would learn on the ship, we would get prepared for the mission on the ship, get briefed on the ship, get the bomb on the ship and take off from there and land back on the ship. Foch stayed four months in front of Kosovo. The mission for Foch started in the beginning of February and ended in the beginning of June last year. We were stationed in the Adriatic Sea, 70 miles from the coast.

How big was the Foch's participation in the NATO strikes?

Actually we have only one carrier left in our navy. The Italians had an aircraft carrier and they had two to four aircraft operating from that platform, so it was a very small participation. Actually the Americans had also an aircraft carrier also outside of the Adriatic Sea so they were far away. But they had an important participation. But they had to refuel and they had to take on very long missions, so they were restricted for that reason to get to theatre, to Kosovo.

What was the advantage of stationing Foch in Adriatic Sea?

NATO forces were concentrating on the north part of Adriatic Sea, so they were very far away. Also they had to refuel before they got to the theatre. It took them about four hours for a mission. Whereas our mission from the French carrier took about one to one hour forty minutes. Due to the precision constraint, the government decided to use only laser-guided bombs. So we used only precision-guided weapons. Actually they are more costly than the standard ballistic bombs. We used those and also laser-guided Missiles, the AS-30. About 600 kg missiles.

How many missions did you carry out personally?

I carried out five. It was something tough for my family to know that I was dropping bombs. We have to obey. We were not feeling nothing about it. We were very fearful. We would feel it was something unusual.

How was the experience for the French Navy, which has not seen much action after World War II?

Actually this was the first big operation in the last 40 years, except some operational missions in Lebanon, that was in '81 and that was only one or two missions. Whereas in Kosovo it did last for over one month and a half of the total bombing by French forces. We had all together 475 bombing missions just from the Foch.

If you add to this the tanking missions, because Super Entendard also is a tanker as it can refuel all the aircraft, we had our personal tankers on board. If you take all missions, bombing plus tanking, then we had altogether 700 missions. It was the second participation; French had the second participation all over NATO after the Americans. But for the navy we did about half what our Air Force did. Basically we did a third of French participation in bombing.

How long have you been in the navy?

I have been in the navy for 17 years. My father and grandfather were in the navy. My father was a naval commando. What I did was a little bit of change. My grandfather was also a commando.

Return to Part 1: C'est la guerre!

Photographs: Jewella C Miranda
Design: Dominic Xavier