"Would not have thought that. Going into enemy waters would make you vulnerable to ocean floor sensors, mines, small patrol craft that won't be in a convoy, and have you less knowledge of the topology. That would seem a disadvantage." it starts to get down to the arrogance and confidence levels of your adversary. an assumption about capability - even if all the numbers are stacking up, doesn't necessarily mean that you carry the day. one assumes that the French have been laying sea bed arrays in the lead up, one also assumes that the egyptians have worked out that they cannot respond completely as a symmetrical level, and that means unconventional tactics and the use of special forces. remember that 20% of France is muslim now, it's a lot harder to spot and identify an egyptian in france than it is a frenchman in egypt. there's a strong 5th column cohort sitting right where the Egyptian secret service would want them. But, it also gets down to what the tactical objective is.. sue for peace? occupy Pt Said? Sieze the Suez (and that would see every other UN Sec Council member plus the non-aligned nations jumping in with formal protests. France would do well to remember what happened in '56.

I get what you mean, thanks. I do see they have 4 Romeo class subs, so going after the CdG, or just as good the oilers while in port using Harpoons might work well.

Do you know if the Ambassador III type missile boats ever got built for Egypt? I can't find anything that says they were completed. They read on paper as a nasty little package.

"remember that 20% of France is muslim now, it's a lot harder to spot and identify an egyptian in france than it is a frenchman in egypt. there's a strong 5th column cohort sitting right where the Egyptian secret service would want them." At best 10% of french population is muslim. And your idea the "egyptian can cover better in France than the french in Egypt" is unlogical. France has a good intel capacity in the Arab world because of the french people with arab origin that can easely melt in the arab street. So your 5th column can be use by both side. Trying to create unrest and intel cells in your ennemy teritory is nothing new nor unexpected.

"And your idea the "egyptian can cover better in France than the french in Egypt" is unlogical. France has a good intel capacity in the Arab world because of the french people with arab origin that can easely melt in the arab street." It's not illogical at all. Do you mean to tell me that a religion that inspires such fundamentalist passion is outweighed by loyalty to the state? Algiers should have taught you something - even if Iraq hasn't. French assets in Egypt are nowhere near comparable to islamic assets in France. Do you seriously think that everyone else in the Arab League would stand back and let France continue to meddle back into the middle east? (remember Algiers). The rest of europe won't be lining up to assist you either (remember Spain and Morocco?). Germany has enough problems which its trying to stifle - they aren't going to let their genie out of the bottle either. this would never stay a nation state conflict - it would be tagged as a religious conflict in short order by puppeteers in Alexandria - at that point you can say hello to hell in Paris. I've already indicated that at the end of the day (depending on tactical objective) that France should prevail - the longer it goes on, the less likely the clear the distinction in victory. France won it's last conflict with Algiers - and lost the outcome, The US never lost a battle in Vietnam - and lost the war. After the bloodletting is done, you have to have a plan. Declaring a military victory is not a plan.

According to worst estimation there is 6 millions muslim in France. So 10%.One third are no longuer believer and are well integrated. I have some arabs origin friends and I work with some and I can see they eat pork, wine and beer (a very simmple test). Half of remaining are foreigners and it is likely in case of a fifth column we would send back a lot of foreigners and restrain freedom of others or put them in camp before sending back (at least men).After all they have no weapons and security forces can deal easily with this population.

Two interesting numbers: http://www.saphirnet.info/article_1429.html So 20 000 muslim are doing pilgrimage to Mecka per year while a muslim has to do it one time at least in its life.French muslim have high life standard compare to other arabs and can do that easily. If we consider that once a muslim is earning its life in France he could put that in high priority but still only 20 000 are doing pilgrimage. If we consider that life duration is about 75 years, it shows that number of Islam believer in France is about 1,5million maximum! Second interesting number: 11000 muslim are convert to Christianism each year in France. It shows that a half million of French muslim will convert to Christianism in the next 45 years! I think that our governement should find a hidden way to help these conversions for example by puting legal resstriction on Islam proselitism and subvnetioning Christian association in hidden way (under "cultural" reasons), then forbidding Hallal meat and curf, and helping real muslim to come back in Algeria.

read "then forbidding Hallal meat and islam scarf"

wow wow, wow: I was speaking about intel gathering and "black operation" attempt possibility. Not about overall support by the street. On that last point (support of the street) i don't think even the french would support their gouvernement in a war without a strong motive (defense of France after an attack from Egypt). And if their is such a case we would not have problem with the french of arab roots 'cause whatever you heard about the "thousand of muslim fanatic in France" it's far from the true. The french intel service have lock many cells of fundamentalist from the 80's to now and there's isn't that much support for them in the french muslim population. (and i known my country usage, we wouldn't play political correct with the traitor in case of war) To manage that the french intel used sometime agent of arab roots and what i was saying is that the french services would have good opportunity to have covert operation in Egypt without "frenchman" being noticed at first sight in the egyptian street (the opposite being also true for egyptian agent).=> unlogical to say the Egyptian have an advantage at hand here. About your Algeria, Vietnam... point of view and the idea no war can be win without a strong population support i totally agrea with that. I'm even one to think that invasion and imperialism is doom even with a "strong hand" (Russian like) 'cause at the end of the day the "strong hand" cost so much money that you would better have been putting it in a deal with some local so to gain advantage. Sorry, i'm unable to gave my idea clearly in english but hope you see the point! I just point out

"Algiers should have taught you something - even if Iraq hasn't. " Please don't speak about Irak as a conterproof of Algeria, Afganisthan, Vietnam or as a "winning" situation. Let wait for the end to draw conclusion. Today i'm not sure the air force doing some supply transport duty so to lighten the burden and the risk on the Army convoy is a proof of "winning" nor "controlled" situation