French air force supports Canadians in Afstan

Not reported in our media, nor by our government (we're very squeamish about some things--AW&ST, May 5, p. 17, text subscriber only):

The French air force has for the first time dropped AASM GPS-guided bombs [see end of third para at link] in combat. A Rafale fighter delivered two of the bombs on Apr. 20 during a mission in Afghanistan. The aircraft was patrolling with a Mirage 2000D when a Canadian ground controller called in an air strike to suppress adversary fire. Cloud cover obstructed the fighters from delivering the laser-guided bombs usually called for, so the Rafale dropped the first AASM, developed by Sagem. Another call for fire 30 min. later caused the same pilot to drop the second weapon, although weather had cleared sufficiently for the Mirage 2000D to deliver a GBU-12 laser-guided bomb as well.