The air force arrived the night of the 18th and was composed of six Mirage F1, four Jaguar fighter-bombers, and a battery of low altitude (anti-aircraft) Crotale missiles.
France's reaction was to bomb again on 7 January the airbase of Ouadi Doum: the fourteen aircraft employed in the operation destroyed the Libyan radar station, but limited themselves to this.
In what appears to have been an escalation, Libyan forces raided the French-Chadian base of Kalaït on 11 January; it was the first direct attack on the French contingent, which suffered no losses.
In the meantime, the French also strengthened their forces; in February Operation Épervier reached 2,200 men and established two new bases at Biltine and Abéché (Camp Moll), in eastern Chad.
A simultaneous Libyan attack on Abéché was more successful, if not very effective, owing to the inadequacy of the French Air Force SAM Crotale battery recently deployed.
While long negotiations between the two parties started, the French continued to fortify their positions in Chad, including completion of an air strip at Abéché in September.
The French started assuming humanitarian tasks, such as mine-clearing in northern Chad; it was during one of these missions that Operation Épervier reported on its first loss on 14 January 1988.
The Chadian–Libyan conflict officially came to an end in October 1988, when Chad resumed formal diplomatic relations with Libya, in accordance with recommendations made by the OAU.
Relations between Paris and N'Djamena diminished, to the point that the French decided to remain neutral in the conflict that started in April 1989 between the President and his former general Idriss Déby.
Despite this failure, Chadian–Libyan relations remained good, and the last issues among the two countries were resolved in 1994 by the International Court of Justice of The Hague, that gave the Aouzou Strip to Chad.
The operation's key roles since have been logistical support in the restructuring and reduction of the Chadian army, that was reduced from 40,000 to 25,000 men, and in making possible the presidential election of 1996.
[5] The French forces also played a small but important part in the battle of N'Djamena, where they provided logistical support to the government but without taking sides in the fighting.