French Air Force wraps up mission with U.S. Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii

About 170 members of the French Air and Space Force are training through Monday at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam with members of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces -- or PACAF.

The program is called Wakea, part of a three-part mission to solidify military cooperation between long time allies -- the U.S. and France. French General Louis Pena explained how these exercises contribute to security for Hawaii and the Indo Pacific region.

"It's a very first time we came here in Hawaii with such a large amount of aircraft. And it's a very first time we learned with fighters in Tahiti, in Polynesia in the French Polynesia. So it's a very brand new mission process. And it demonstrates that we can be a very effective Air Force in the Pacific," Gen. Pena said. "Indo Pac is a very important area. And as you know, French, sorry, France is the only European nations which have territories here in the South Pacific. So it was also the opportunity for us to, I would say, reassure our own citizen, far from Paris, hey guys, you are far from Paris. But if there is a threat, if something happens here in Polynesia, we can fly from France in only two days, and we are able to defend you against each kind of threats. And these rights can be a climatic threat, can be the COVID. We sent an airlift craft a few months ago to add the citizen population, the citizen Polynesian population in Tahiti, to protect them against the COVID with a mass vaccination and so on."

When asked if the mission is in response to recent Russian military exercises near Hawaii last month, Gen. Pena said it is not the reason the French military is in Hawaii.