Operational History
On 26 July 2009, three French Tiger HAP helicopters of the 5th Helicopter Regiment arrived at Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan. This is the first active deployment of the Eurocopter Tiger in a war zone. The helicopters were to perform armed reconnaissance and fire support missions to aid the effort of coalition ground troops in quelling the growing Taliban insurgency. The Tigers had their operational certification in Afghanistan in early August 2009. Until July 2010, three Tigers have totalled 1,000 hours of operation. During a night mission on 4 February 2011 a French Tiger crashed about 30 miles east of Kabul, both crew members were lightly injured.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé announced on 23 May 2011 that the French ship Tonnerre amphibious assault helicopter carrier with attack helicopters aboard would be deployed to the Libyan coast to enforce UN resolution 1973. On 4 June 2011 French Tiger and British Apache helicopters were used for the first time against targets within Libya.
Read more about this topic: Eurocopter Tiger
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)