Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/742473
4 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 26 OCTOBER 2016 News Aviation company has close links to French secret service CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Earlier this year, CAE Aviation came under the public lime- light in France following the publication of leaked documents which revealed that the DGSE was leasing three aircraft from the company to be used in Intelligence Surveil- lance and Reconnaissance (ISR) flights. Condition of CAE and maintenance quality questioned The five-year contract was signed in 2014 and was costing the French super- spies €30 million per aircraft. CAE was also contracted by the DGSE to provide all the necessary monitoring tools necessary to intercept communication and record movement on the ground and at sea, day or night. According to both Le Monde and Le Point, the leaked documents revealed that the DGSE and French ministry of defence aimed to reduce costs by sharing expenses across departments, and that the minis- try's Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM) and the DGSE had leased nine ISR aircraft between them from CAE and one other company. But the Directorate of General Arma- ment (DGA) had complained about the quality of aircraft maintenance provided by CAE on the planes leased to the DGSE and DRM, raising the possibility of risk to the personnel on the flights. Le Monde noted it could not determine whether these accusations were founded or if it was a case of unsubstantiated commer- cial disparagement against a company that regularly supplied its services, equipment and staff to NATO and the EU. Were all five victims members of DGSE? Le Point, a French weekly political and news magazine, went on to claim that all five personnel aboard the aircraft were current or – in the case of the two pilots – former members of the DGSE. It claimed that both young pilots were former members of France's Joint Air Group 56 (MAG 56), based in Evreux. MAG 56 is the air unit of the DGSE, fall- ing under the Action services department. It said it was common for companies like CAE Aviation, that provide intelligence gathering services to governments and military organisations, to recruit staff from within special forces and secret services. Le Point said that the three task-spe- cialists on board the aircraft were current members of the DGSE and reporting di- rectly to the directorate. The French defence ministry refused to comment on the identities and occupation of the victims, a common practice when se- cret service personnel are involved. MaltaToday has learned that CAE Avia- tion is the leading company in Europe – and one of the top three worldwide – in the field of aerial intelligence gathering and surveillance, and that it is known to work particularly closely with the French, Ger- man and Dutch ministries of defence. It also counts numerous other govern- ments, NGOs and institutions among its clients, including NATO, EU FOR (EU mil- itary force), EU NAVFOR (EU naval force), Frontex, the UN, and large oil companies. A modest facade The company's modest headquarters at Luxembourg Airport belie the far-reaching reputation of the company within intelli- gence-gathering circles. The founder of the company, Bernard Zeler, is known to enjoy close ties to DGSE and employs many former members of the DGSE and other security agencies, accord- ing to Le Point. In 2013, the company was even awarded a huge tract of land in Lapallise, a commune in the Allier region in central France, in- cluding an airfield, where it offers military parachute training to special forces units from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and other countries. The Netherlands have confirmed that their Air-Mobile Brigade trains at the CAE airfield, practising parachute high-alti- tude low-opening and high-opening night jumps. The airspace around this area is restrict- ed up to flight level 200, or 20,000ft. A Dutch Aviation Support report on CAE Aviation noted that the technology on the company's ISR aircraft was the same as that on board the latest US Navy Orion re- connaissance aircraft, allowing the planes to collect very detailed images from high altitudes, over 8,000ft or 3,500m. The cockpits are equipped with special features like a data-link system connected to a digital moving map, making it possible to transfer 'near real-time imaging' to sta- tionary or mobile receiving stations. Like other CAE aircraft used for ISR mis- sions, the aircraft that crashed on Monday was covered in a special radar-absorbent paint for a low visual and radar profile, and was equipped with four-bladed propellers designed especially to generate considera- bly less noise than the normal three-bladed models. The EU and Malta link to CAE Soon after the plane crashed on Monday, EU commissioner for foreign affairs and security policy Federica Mogherini con- firmed that no EU officials were on board the doomed Merlin. But the EU has very close ties to CAE Aviation. Luxembourg, in fact, financed two CAE Merlin III aircraft to support the EU's ATALANTA counter-piracy opera- tion. The aircraft logged more than 4,000 hours in support of the 2012 EUNAVFOR mission in Somalia, assistant helicopters and warships. One of the CAE aircraft on the EU- NAVFOR missions had the registration N577MX and was, in fact, the same air- craft that crashed in Malta. Luxembourg then financed a CAE air- craft to support the 2015 EUNAVFOR mission in the Mediterranean, aimed at combatting trafficking networks. The Duchy's defence minister stated last year that the country was using "a company based in Findel (the region in Luxembourg where CAE and Luxembourg Airport are located) to help a European military op- eration and to collect accurate information on the smugglers operating largely from Libya, their strategy, their means and their business model". Malta itself has worked with CAE in the past. In 2009, Luxembourg provided the Armed Forces of Malta Air Wing with a CASA 212 maritime patrol aircraft that it leased from CAE Aviation. The AFM used the aircraft for maritime patrol duties during Frontex's Nautilus joint operation in the central Mediterra- nean. The aircraft arrived in Luqa at the end of July 2009 and was operated by an AFM aircrew under the supervision of a CAE in- structor. Experts examining debris and parts of the plane following the crash AFM Casa 212 Aviocar leased by the Luxembourg government from CAE Aviation (photo by Peter JetStar2)