PARIS \u2014 The key role of military helicopters in underpinning French national security was highlighted in the police assault on the two brothers who killed the journalists at the Charlie Hebdo weekly, with four helicopters assigned to the deadly task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The helicopters were up close to the action,” Army Gen. Olivier Gourlez de la Motte, chief of the Army Air Corps, said Jan. 22. Three Army Pumas and one from the Air Force were committed, with one of those on standby, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three helicopters flew to Dammartin-en-Go\u00eble, the village where the killers Ch\u00e9rif and Sa\u00efd Kouachi had gone into hiding in a small print company and seized its owner as hostage. The fourth helicopter served as a back-up unit at the Villacoublay military base on the edge of the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The helicopters flew in officers of the \u00e9lite paramilitary unit Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale who were (GIGN), <\/span>attached to a rope beneath the helicopter on the special patrol insertion\/extraction system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The pilots also flew reconnaissance flights over the key site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The A <\/span>top priority placed on domestic security will slow have slowed <\/span>the government’s response to a request for 10 or so attack and transport helicopters to reinforce the Barkhane operation in the Sahel sub-Saharan region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “This evening, there is a theater on which I would like to insist, because it is at an unprecedented level,” Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Jan. 22. “It is of course the national theater.” The minister was speaking before service chiefs, industry leaders, politicians and foreign diplomatic officers at the New Year’s reception at the Naval Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The French forces have asked for more helicopters to boost the 20 or so choppers flying in the Barkhane mission, de la Motte said Jan. 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some 15 helicopters are on stand-by for domestic missions, and the administration could send draw on <\/span>these for sending <\/span>to Africa for a three-month deployment, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n France launched the Barkhane operation last year, aimed at countering Islamist insurgents. France signed up Burkino Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger as partners, and the African nations are bases for some 3,000 French troops in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The target is to rise in strength,” de La Motte told the defense journalists association. “Today we have around a dozen helicopters in Gao, and between eight and 10 for the special forces. The goal is to add 10 more,” he said. Gao is a French military base in Mali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The aim is “to have a real helicopter force for Barkhane,” he said. The extra units would be a mix of Tiger and Gazelle combat, and Puma and Cougar transport helicopters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Army planners have asked for six Tiger helicopters deployed in 2015, (eds: correct), <\/span>he said. At Gao, there are presently three Tigers in the h\u00e9licopter appui et protection, (HAP), <\/span>or lighter, version, under Barkhane command. <\/p>\n\n\n\n