Bastille Day parade: France’s annual show of military might • FRANCE 24 English

Bastille Day parade: France’s annual show of military might • FRANCE 24 English

While on the ground on the Shanzil, we’ve got those military vehicles parading. Uh we can go to CLA Balan who’s right in the heart of the action there. Cla tell us about what you’re seeing. [Music] So behind me, the tanks and the armored vehicles are parading. You should be able to see the tanks just coming into view on my right. This is of course an opportunity for France to show off its military hardware as well as of course French defense industry. France has a significant defense industry. These are French design. These are French made and France which was different from many of its neighbors after the end of the cold war kept up its defense industry and is continuing to design and build much of its own military hardware. While some of its neighbors in the 1990s, some of the defense industry fell and began to crumble. Here in France, it was very much kept up. Looking to my right, yep, more more a whole stream of vehicles will be coming your way on your screens very very shortly. I can say the noise is almost deafening, but the crowd watching really up close. You get an idea of how large these vehicles are. And of course the troops inside in combat gear, helmets, bulletproof vests really keen to show and that’s part of the focus of this year’s parade. Keen to show that France and the French armed forces are ready if need be. And another theme, Claire, is cooperation with other partners, notably in in Europe. Um tell us a little bit about that. Certainly this is a day for France, but it’s also a day for France to show that it has allies in the skies. We saw the typhoon, the Euro fighter aircraft going through the skies. There was a British one, a Spanish one, a Belgian one. There is certainly there were Swiss aircraft in the skies as well. And you will also be seeing shortly another theme which is a big theme at the moment here in France, the firefighters. We’ve seen forest fires near Marles and in Marles in recent weeks and soon we should be seeing f fire engines coming down the Shanizi as well. Here in France in Paris, firefighters actually have military status. So they are part of this parade. Again, this is all you can see this military hardware. Much of France’s military hardware, its tankless armored vehicles have been updated recently as part of the Scorpion program. So we have vehicles Serval, the Jaguar, the Griffin, the the newly modernized llair tank as well. So this is all on show here on the Shan. You can see going past me now. Huge, huge modernized vehicles, part of the French armed forces and on show here at the Shaniz in Paris today. All right, Cla, thank you very much. The images certainly are impressive. The sound as well. I hope your ears are okay after that. Cla Baland there reporting live from the Shan. Uh Major Julian Nicolola. Uh can you tell us a little bit more about the kinds of things that we’re seeing? Yeah, we are currently seeing the luclair main battle tank which is the combat vehicle in the French army. And just before we’ve seen some armored VBC, which is armored infantry combat vehicles. And the purpose of this vehicle is to uh to drop the infantry as close as possible to the to the u uh the firing position the firing positions they want to reach or the enemy foxholes and also to provide fire fire support with the with the gun which is on top of the vehicle. And um we’ve also seen some uh Griffin which is a new armored um infantry carrier. So it’s uh same as the um as the previous one, the VBCI. It’s uh it’s to um to transport the infantry, but it’s less armored and uh and has less firepower than the other one. So it it depends on the um the infantry regiments. They have different vehicles uh depending of the of the regiment. [Music]

Swooping warplanes, axe-carrying warriors, a drone light show over the Eiffel Tower and fireworks in nearly every French town… France is celebrating its national holiday Monday with 7,000 people marching, on horseback or riding armored vehicles along the cobblestones of the Champs-Elysees, the most iconic avenue in Paris. This parade is an opportunity for France to show its military might. Details by FRANCE 24 reporter Claire Paccalin.
#France #BastilleDay #military

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