‘Cateau Noire’ military exercise ends tomorrow |22 September 2021
The Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) and the French Forces armées dans la zone sud de l’océan Indien (FAZSOI) based in La Reunion are continuing in their joint ‘Cateau Noire’ military exercise.
The aim of the military exercise, held every two years, is to boost the forces’ capacities in the fight against piracy, illegal fishing, smuggling as well are narco-trafficking.
The exercise this year is focusing on the fight against trafficking of illicit drugs only, involving the SPDF’s Seychelles Coast Guard, the Seychelles Air Force and the Special Force Unit (Tazar) and the French military and air force.
The ‘Cateau Noire’ exercise is divided into two phases – the training and execution. The training phase of the exercise was held from Monday September 13, 2021 on the arrival of ten members of the French Special Forces onboard the French Military plane ‘CAVA’. They engaged in a week’s joint military training with the SPDF Special Forces ‘Tazar’.
The four days of boarding, searching, seizure, fire fighting and firing execution exercises, which ends tomorrow, started early on Monday this week off the northern coast of Mahé to finish 10,000 nautical miles off the northwest coast of the island of Silhouette.
In the scenario, Seychelles is red flagged as being the hub for drug distribution in the region and in some other countries. From intelligence gathered, the network was uncovered and the mission was to disrupt the transportation route through boarding and searching of vessels for drugs and to destroy the distribution base located on Mahé. SCG patrol ship ‘Zoroaster’ and French patrol ship ‘Champlain’ were deployed to intercept a suspected vessel carrying drugs into the country.
The boarding, searching and seizure exercise off the northern coast of Mahé was held on both ships so that both special forces get to experiment the exercise. The French Special Forces did the first boarding on PS Zoroaster and later five newly recruited soldiers from ‘Tazar’, under the guidance of Lieutenant Luigui Loizeau, mounted the same exercise on board ‘Champlain’. The boarding exercise was followed by the fire fighting and first aid exercises, also conducted on both ships by crew members.
In the afternoon, the two vessels, assisted by SCG patrol boat ‘Vigilant’, moved further to the high seas, 10,000 nautical miles off the northwest coast of the island of Silhouette, for the firing exercise. Once again, it was the newly recruited special force soldiers, under the leadership of Lieutenant Loizeau, who undertook the duty to fire the warning shots to stop the suspected drug vessel (target) on its way.
Yesterday was a repeat of the exercise held on Monday but with the assistance of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) by the ‘Dornier’ aircraft from the SPDF Air Wing and by ‘CAVA’ from the French air force.
Today will also see a repeat of the same exercise as yesterday and everything will end tomorrow with an early morning raid, coming from the sea, on the logistic base.
Captain Dave Mathieu, in charge of operations and training at the SPDF, said that the exercise was to be held last year but it had to be cancelled on account of the pandemic.
He further said apart from boosting capacities to tackle trafficking of illicit drugs, such exercise also benefits both forces in terms of understanding each other’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for further coordination in the event of conducting a joint operation.
He noted that twelve soldiers from our special forces are taking part in the four- day execution exercise in boarding, searching, firing and raiding.
Lieutenant Loizeau, who has participated in ‘Cateau Noire’ exercise before, said that the young recruits were chosen for the training as future backups in the fight against maritime crime.
He added that due to our vast economic zone, the SPDF is in need of young competent personnel to join in to help safeguard and protect our territory.
The accompanying photographs show some highlights of the exercise on Monday.
Patrick Joubert
Photos by Jude Morel
