"Considering what has happened, we think it's possible to once again consider this question, and not just for Syria, but other countries.”

Half of France's military planes 'unfit to fly'

French warplanes and helicopters may be asked to join the fight against the Assad Regime, but the French Air Force on the whole is in a disastrous state, according to a report by Rory Mulholland from Paris in December.

More than half - 56 per cent - of all France's aircraft were deemed unfit to fly at any given moment, according to a senior minister.

“If I compare the current situation … of our planes with a car, it is as if I wanted to have a car every morning that works, I would have to own four cars,” Florence Parly, the armed forces minister, said during a visit to an air base in Evreux in Normandy in December.

She made the remark in a scathing speech about the state of the French fleet, where aircraft availability has gone from bad to worse despite a 25 per cent boost to the maintenance budget over the past five years that brought the total to €4 billion (£3.5 billion) in 2017.

Ms Parly went to Evreux to announce wide-ranging plans to cut soaring costs and free up more aircraft by streamlining the current maintenance programme, which is so complex that it can take 30 different contracts to get a helicopter repaired.