Parisians will not vibrate with the metallic clatter of armored vehicles. The event will not be open to the public, there will be no motorized vehicles. The President of the Republic will not go down the Champs-Élysées for the review of the troops. He will attend, in the presence of members of the government, a reduced parade on the Place de la Concorde. At the stake in front of the Obelisk.
With the theme of “a committed, united and united nation”, this lighter ceremony will pay tribute to the health personnel of the armed forces and to the actors mobilized in the fight against the epidemic, in particular through Operation Resilience.
Only 2,500 guests will take their places in the stands, mainly caregivers, their families, as well as teachers, cashiers, police, firefighters… representatives of trades very busy during confinement. Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland will be the four foreign nations invited for their support and hospitality for French patients.
This 2020 edition will begin with a triple tribute to General de Gaulle on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of his birth, the 50th anniversary of his death and the 80th anniversary of the June 18 Appeal.
The air parade will be maintained. Around fifty planes and around twenty helicopters will fly over the capital on the Star - Concorde axis. The nine Alpha jets of the Patrouille de France in “Big Nine” formation will open the presentation with their tricolor plume. Two Typhoons of the 1st Squadron of the Royal Air Force will fly alongside two Rafales of the 3/30 Lorraine Fighter Squadron, the first unit of the Free French Air Force created in 1940, the two formations to be paired soon. There will be an A330 MRTT, derived from the civil Airbus A330, used in Operation Resilience, which has enabled the evacuation of 36 patients with Covid-19. In its wake, an A400M Atlas of the German Air Force having transferred patients from Strasbourg to Ulm. Among the easily recognizable planes, an E-3F Awacs, surmounted by the dome of its radar fixed to the fuselage, and the C-135 four-jet tanker aircraft in flight with their poles deployed.
The second part of the air parade will also be dedicated to the Covid-19 crisis, welcoming the role played by the helicopters of the armies and the Ministry of the Interior in medical evacuations. This will be followed by groups of aircraft devoted to the protection of the national territory, protection and air-sea combat, and air-land combat. The Patrouille de France will make an exceptional second pass, with white smoke bombs, in homage to the medical, civilian and military world.