He had to cross the Mediterranean to Gaza. As announced by President Emmanuel Macron, the French hospital ship "Tonnerre" left its base in Toulon (Var) on Wednesday to take part in rescue operations for the civilian population of the Palestinian territory, affected by bombing by Israeli forces in response to Hamas attacks.
[#Rétro2021🎥] In 2021, the vessel that spent the most time at sea was the PHA Tonnerre with 3,642 hours at sea, or 164 days of deployment! Indeed, he was asked to do as part of the Joan of Arc mission, then #CORMORAN21 and #POLARIS_21! pic.twitter.com/405shIbWjI
— French Navy (@MarineNationale) December 24, 2021
Nearly 200 m long and 32 m wide, the "Tonnerre" is an "amphibious helicopter carrier", in the same way as the "Mistral". If this boat is qualified as "amphibious", it is because it can carry "elements of the Army and the Air and Space Force", i.e. "combat helicopters, vehicles, equipment and troops", details the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
The huge building has a platform and hangar capable of accommodating 16 helicopters. It also has a hospital with 69 beds - an expandable number - and two operating theatres. Between 400 and 900 soldiers can be carried on board. As for the arsenal, the "Tonnerre" also houses cannons, machine guns, surface-to-air self-defense systems, and anti-torpedo decoys.
Transport, crisis management and medical
Thanks to this multiple equipment, this helicopter carrier can quickly deploy on missions of all types, such as "crisis management, transport, medical evacuation and medical support operations by amphibious and airmobile means, by being able to integrate on board, depending on the mission, elements of forces (joint/inter-allied) and medical (military/civilian)", explains the Ministry of the Armed Forces. It can also be used as a training vessel for the forces of the Navy or the Naval Academy.
VIDEO. What does "Le Tonnerre", the French military ship on its way to Gaza, look like?
In Gaza, the ship will be tasked with lending a hand to hospitals in the area, which is besieged by the Israeli army and depends on humanitarian aid arriving in dribs and drabs via the Egyptian border. In addition to the "Tonnerre", a series of French planes are due to land in Egypt to deliver medical equipment. The first of these is due to land on Thursday.
The urgency is there: according to the director of Shifa Hospital, the largest in the territory, "ten hospitals are already out of service" in Gaza, and "more than 90% of medicines and products are exhausted". For their part, local and international NGOs are constantly warning of the humanitarian situation, which is considered "catastrophic".
Missions in Lebanon or the Gulf of Guinea
Active since 2007, the "Tonnerre" has been mobilized several times abroad. After the explosion in the port of Beirut on 4 August 2020, for example, the helicopter carrier worked to map the damage to the site and restore the site.
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At the end of 2022, it had also intervened in the Gulf of Guinea, for maritime surveillance missions, and exercises with the forces of Senegal, CĂ´te d'Ivoire, Niger and Gabon. During one mission, its crew seized 4.6 tons of cocaine aboard a Brazilian tugboat, worth an estimated 150 million euros, according to the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
The "Tonnerre" was also used for missions on French territory. Like in March 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. This time, he had made his way to Ajaccio, Corsica, to transfer patients to intensive care units on the French Riviera. Enough to confirm the versatility of this imposing ship.