President Emmanuel Macron of France might be uncomfortably close to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but he at least understands how to deter Vladimir Putin of Russia.

Macron showed as much via a French nuclear strike exercise on Wednesday. While no nuclear warhead was involved, the exercise tested all the other elements of the air component of France’s nuclear command (Force de dissuasion). As Air Force Technology notes, “Operation Durandal saw a Rafale-B aircraft and an A330 Phènix overcome representative air-to-air and ground-to-air threats before firing the MBDA manufactured ASMPA-R.”

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