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According to the French newspaper L’Opinion, the French Navy faced unforeseen issues during the April 14 missile strike on Syria.

L’Opinion learned from own unnamed officials, the French Navy was planning to launch more than 3 MdCN naval cruise missiles on targets in Syria but something goes wrong because of a technical failure.

There were three frigates – l’Aquitaine, l’Auvergne and le Languedoc – equipped with MdCNs deployed in the eastern Mediterranean. However, only the Le Languedoc conducted a missile launch.

According to the report, the first warship failed to launch its missiles and a “reserve” warship had to conduct a missile launch. The third frigate was not also been able to fire missiles because the French Navy “missed the interval” set for the strike.

The April 14 strike was the first operational use of the MdCN naval cruise missiles and this “failure” wasn’t a great result for the French Navy.

On April 14, French forces launched 12 cruise missiles – 9 Storm Shadow/SCALP EG by Rafel and Mirage jets and 3 MdCN naval cruise missiles by the FREMM Frigate.

L’Opinion also noticed that it’s strange that the French Air Force did not launch the 10th Storm Shadow/SCALP EG missile.

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