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Defence

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The French Armed Forces (Forces armées françaises) are the military and paramilitary forces of France, under the President of the Republic as supreme commander. They consist of the French Army (Armée de Terre), French Navy (Marine Nationale, formerly called Armée de Mer), the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air), the French Strategic Nuclear Force (Force Nucléaire Stratégique, nicknamed Force de Frappe or "Strike Force") and the Military Police called National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie nationale), which also fulfils civil police duties in the rural areas of France. Together they are among the largest armed forces in the world and the largest in the Europe. While the Gendarmerie is an integral part of the French armed forces (gendarmes are career soldiers), and therefore under the purview of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, it is operationally attached to the Ministry of the Interior as far as its civil police duties are concerned.

As far as the French intelligence units are concerned, the Directorate-General for External Security (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure) is considered to be a component of the Armed Forces under the authority of the Ministry of Defence. The other, the Central Directorate for Interior Intelligence (Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur) is a division of the National Police Force (Direction générale de la Police Nationale), and therefore reports directly to the Ministry of the Interior. There has been no national conscription since 1997.

France has a special military corps, the French Foreign Legion, founded in 1830, which consists of foreign nationals from over 140 countries who are willing to serve in the French Armed Forces and become French citizens after the end of their service period.

France has major military industries with one of the largest aerospace industries in the world. Its industries have produced such equipment as the Rafale fighter, the Charles de Gaulle class aircraft carriers, the Exocet missile and the Leclerc tank among others. France is a major arms seller, with most of its arsenal's designs available for the export market with the notable exception of nuclear-powered devices.

The Bastille Day military parade held in Paris each 14 July for France's national day, called Bastille Day in English-speaking countries (referred to in France as Fête nationale), is the oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe. Other smaller parades are organised across the country.

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Organisation of the Armed Forces

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Under the command staffs, armed forces include four services, the Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard. The National Gendarmerie is a military police force and a branch of the French Armed Forces placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior.

Army (French: Armée de terre)
Navy (French: Marine nationale)
Air Force (French: Armée de l'Air)
Gendarmerie (French: Gendarmerie nationale)

Command of the Armed Forces

The Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces (CEMA) is responsible for the usage of the Armed Forces and is in command of military operations. He has authority over:
• The Chiefs of Staff of the three main service branches, Ground, Air and Sea.
• Senior commanders overseas.
• Commanders of French forces abroad and their joint staffs.

For the exercise of his powers, he has at his disposal.
• The Chiefs of Staff placed under the orders of a general officer, major - general of the armies, who second and replace the CEMA in the exercise of its functions.
• The Directorate of Military Intelligence.
• National Jurisdiction, Joint Support Services and Joint Organization (JIA) services.

Within the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, the Deputy Chief of Staff (SCEM) is responsible for ongoing strategic intelligence, strategic response, advance and decisive planning, and the conduct of operations with command is entrusted to CEMA. It includes planning and operations centers (CPCOs) that plan and conduct external and internal operations, the Joint Operations Command, the Joint Space Command, the Force Employment Division. And the division "nuclear forces". CSEM "plans" are involved in defining and implementing the military model and related defence capabilities. In this capacity, he leads the development of planning and military programming as well as its updating. The SCEM "performance" ensures consistency and overall performance, armed operations, services and agencies and OIA subordinate to the CEMA.

Armée de Terre
> Main article: French Army

The Army contributes to the strategic functions of defence policy. It contributes to the knowledge and anticipation function through intelligence and foresight, which are essential for free and sovereign decision-making. It plays a key role in protecting the French people against all risks and threats, in particular terrorism and cyber-attacks, whether inside or outside national territory, and in crisis prevention through the pre-positioning of its forces abroad. The Army participates with other armies in external intervention, particularly in Africa. Of the 77 000 soldiers making up the deployable land task force (FOT), some 20 000 are permanently deployed in operational posture, in France and abroad.

Under the authority of the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of the Army Staff exercises organic command over all the Army's formations. As part of the Contact plan, the Army has been organised around:

• Major commanders at corps level: the Commander of the Land Forces (CFT), the Directorate of Army Human Resources (DRHAT), the Central Director of the Integrated Structure for Maintaining Land Equipment in Operational Condition (DC SIMMT) and the Land Area Territorial Commanders (COM ZT);

• Thirteen divisional-level commands, including the land command for the national territory (created on occasion), the land special forces command, the army light aviation command, including an air combat brigade, and the commands of the 1st division (1st DIV) in Besançon and the 3rd division (3rd DIV) in Marseille.
  

The mission of the Land Forces Command (LFC) is to provide command, training and engagement preparation for the CEMAT to enable it to honour the Army's operational contracts. It has the two joint divisions forming the Scorpion force (1st DIV and 3rd DIV) and specialised commands. France has a parachute assault and emergency parachute brigade without equivalent in Europe.

Marine Nationale
> Main article: French Navy

The French Navy mainly contributes to the strategic functions of nuclear deterrence, protection and external intervention. Under the responsibility of the Navy, the oceanic component of nuclear deterrence has four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), at least one of which has been permanently at sea since 1972. The Navy protects the coasts of mainland France and its overseas territories, France's exclusive economic zone and the maritime routes through which the bulk of international trade passes; it carries out police and rescue missions, protects French nationals and combats illicit trafficking. Finally, the Navy plays an important role in France's external operations, thanks to the long-distance and long-term force projection capabilities provided by the naval air group around the aircraft carriers and the amphibious groups around the three projection and command ships.

The Chief of the Maritime Staff (CEMM) is responsible for the operational preparation of the forces under their authority; they are responsible, on behalf of the Navy, for the recruitment, initial training, discipline, morale and condition of the military. It is made up of the Naval Staff, the Directorate of Naval Military Personnel, the territorial maritime district commanders and organic staffs by nature of forces :

• The Naval Action Force (ALFAN);
• Submarine Forces, including the strategic oceanic force (ALFOST);
• The Naval Aeronautics Force (ALAVIA);
• Marine riflemen and marine commandos (ALFUSCO);
• The Maritime Gendarmerie (COMGENDMAR) and the Marseilles Marine Fire Brigade (BMPM).

Navy force elements deployed in military operations are placed under the authority of Maritime Area Commanders, subordinate to the CEMA. For operations involving State action at sea, the resources deployed are placed under the authority of the Maritime Prefects subordinate to the Prime Minister. The same general naval officer performs the two functions of maritime prefect and maritime zone commander. France is a framework nation for the "French Rapid Reaction Air and Maritime Force Headquarters" (FRMARFOR), set up to take command at short notice of a multinational maritime component. To fulfill all its missions, the Navy is permanently present in three main military ports in France (Toulon, Brest and Cherbourg) and in eight naval bases overseas and abroad (Abu Dhabi and Djibouti).

Armée de l'Air
> Main article: French Air Force

The French Air Force is the oldest air force in the world. The first five squadrons were created at the beginning of 1912 and were then dependent on the French Army. The Air Force became a fully-fledged army on 2 July 1934. Under the authority of the Chief of the Air Staff, the Chief of the Air Staff exercises organic command over all Air Force formations. He has the Air Force Staff, the Air Force Human Resources Directorate, the Aeronautics Industrial Service (SIAÉ), expertise and study services and three commands by nature of forces:

• The Strategic Air Force Command (SAFC) ;
• The Air Force Command (CFA) ;
• The Air Defence and Air Operations command (CDAOA).

Gendarmerie Nationale
> Main article: French Gendarmerie

The National Gendarmerie is an armed force established to ensure the enforcement of laws and the maintenance of order. Without prejudice to the powers of the judicial authority for the exercise of its judicial missions, and those of the Minister of the Interior for the exercise of its civil missions, the National Gendarmerie may be placed under the authority of the Minister of Defence from time to time for the execution of its military missions, for example when it participates in operations of the armed forces outside the national territory. The National Gendarmerie is an armed force instituted to ensure the enforcement of laws and the maintenance of order.

However, the national gendarmerie has been generally attached to the Ministry of the Interior since a 2009 law. The text defines it as "an armed force instituted to ensure public safety and security" but provides that it is "organically and operationally attached" to the Ministry of the Interior, whereas previously it was only placed under its authority "for employment ". The text nevertheless preserves the major military specificities of the status of gendarme.

However, several specialised units of the national gendarmerie are permanently placed under the authority of the Minister of Defence:

• The Maritime Gendarmerie, which carries out national defence missions on the coast and policing at sea; it has a staff of around 1,200;
• The Air Gendarmerie;
• The Nuclear Weapons Security Gendarmerie;
• The Provost Gendarmerie.

Operational Deployments

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The operational deployments of the French armed forces fall into four distinct categories:

• Deployments in mainland France;
• Pre-positioned sovereignty forces stationed in the French overseas departments and collectivities;
• Pre-positioned presence forces, established in Africa and the Middle East under bilateral agreements with the states concerned;
• External operations (OPEX), whether nationally initiated or within an international framework, such as peace support operations and international law under a United Nations (UN) mandate.

Under the authority of the ECS, all these deployments are conducted by the Operations Planning and Conduct Centre (OPPC). The forces permanently pre-positioned outside metropolitan France contribute to 4 of the 5 strategic functions entrusted to the armed forces: knowledge and anticipation, protection, external intervention and protection. Pre-positioned forces are deployed permanently outside the metropolitan territory in the main areas of national and international strategic interest. They constitute a reservoir of forces that can be rapidly projected outside the metropolitan territory to support operational deployments abroad and contribute to stability in sensitive regions.

• The sovereignty forces have been articulated around three "theatres": the Caribbean theatre with 1,000 men in the West Indies and 2,300 men in Guyana, the Pacific theatre with 1,400 men in New Caledonia and 900 men in French Polynesia, and the Indian Ocean theatre with 1,600 men stationed in several bases in the southern ocean. They are led by general officers called "senior commanders" subordinate to the CEMA.

• The presence forces ensure the defence of French interests and the security of our nationals present on these remote territories or in neighbouring regions. They are stationed in Djibouti, Gabon, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and the United Arab Emirates under bilateral agreements with these States.

External operations are interventions by French military forces outside national territory. The decision to commit the armed forces is taken by the President of the Republic in the Defence Council. OPEX qualification is the result of an order by the Minister of the Armed Forces, which opens the theatre of engagement, specifying the geographical area and period concerned. The government must inform Parliament within three days; a parliamentary debate without a vote may be organised. If the external intervention lasts longer than four months, the government submits this extension to Parliament for authorisation. Because of its status as a military power and its membership of numerous international organisations, France is often actively involved in peacekeeping or peacemaking operations in Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans. OPEX can be conducted either by French forces alone or in cooperation with our allies.

Personnel

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The head of the French armed forces is the President of the Republic, in their role as chef des armées. However, the Constitution puts civil and military government forces at the disposal of the gouvernement (the executive cabinet of ministers chaired by the Prime Minister, who are not necessarily of the same political side as the president). The Minister of the Armed Forces (the incumbent Florence Goulard) oversees the military's funding, procurement and operations. Historically, France has relied a great deal on conscription to provide manpower for its military, in addition to a minority of professional career soldiers. Following the Algerian War, the use of non-volunteer draftees in foreign operations was ended; if their unit was called up for duty in war zones, draftees were offered the choice between requesting a transfer to another unit or volunteering for the active mission. Young people must still, however, register for possible conscription (should the situation call for it). The French Armed Forces have a active personnel of 426,265, and has an total manpower of 368,962 (with the Gendarmerie National).

It breaks down as follows:
• The French Army; NUMBER personnel.
• The French Navy; NUMBER personnel.
• The French Air Force; NUMBER personnel.
• The National Gendarmerie; NUMBER personnel.

Apart from the three main service branches, the French Armed Forces also includes a fourth paramilitary branch called the National Gendarmerie. It's reported strength of 103,000 active personnel and 25,000 reserve personnel are used in everyday law enforcement, and also form a coast guard formation under the command of the French Navy. There are however some elements of the Gendarmerie that participate in French external operations, providing specialised law enforcement and supporting roles.

The reserve element of the French Armed Forces consists of two structures; the Operational Reserve and the Citizens Reserve. The strength of the Operational Reserve is NUMBER personnel. The purpose of the military reserve is to strengthen the capabilities of the armed forces, to maintain the spirit of defence and to contribute to maintaining the link between the Nation and its army. It is made up of an operational reserve comprising volunteers and former military personnel subject to the obligation of availability, and a citizens' defence and security reserve made up of approved volunteers. Young French citizens can fulfill the mandatory service Service national universel (SNU) within the Armed Forces in the service branch of his/her choice.

Legal and Strategic Framework

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The armed forces shall ensure the protection of the population, the territory and French interests against armed aggression and other threats likely to jeopardise national security, within the framework of the institutions of the Third Republic and the defence and national security policy determined by the government. In addition to their primary missions, the armed forces also participate in numerous public service missions. The Defence Code brings together texts relating to the general organisation, missions, military personnel and the functioning of defence. It is composed of a legislative part and a regulatory part, each divided into five parts dealing respectively with the general principles of defence, the legal regimes of defence, the organisation of the Ministry, military personnel and administrative and financial resources. The Minister of the Armed Forces has authority over the armies, support services, joint bodies and related formations. In the exercise of his or her powers, the Minister of the Armed Forces is assisted by the Chief of Defence Staff (CEMA) in the general organisation of the armed forces, the Delegate General for Armaments (DGA) in matters of equipment for the forces, and the Secretary General for Administration (SGA) in all areas of the general administration of the Ministry. The National Gendarmerie is attached both to the Ministry of the Armed Forces (military employment, opex, training, discipline, etc.) and to the Ministry of the Interior (budget, police missions, etc.) which has authority over the General Directorate of the National Gendarmerie. National Gendarmerie personnel retain their military status and certain specialised gendarmerie formations (maritime gendarmerie, air gendarmerie, etc.) are placed under the authority of the Defence.

Defence policy, together with other public policies, contributes to France's defence and security strategy, the aim of which is to identify all the strategies for responding to the threats and risks facing France. Defence and national security issues are periodically reassessed to take account of changes in the international context, threats, techniques and the country's financial resources. The aim of defence policy is to ensure the protection of the population, the territory and national interests against armed aggression of all kinds, whether conventional, hybrid or digital. It defines the priorities, missions and resources of the armed forces, in coherence and synergy with other public policies, in particular those conducted by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is drawn up by the Government, discussed in Parliament and formalised in a multi-year Military Programming Law (LPM).

France's defence strategy has been since the origin of the Third Republic adapted to the changing world by successive Presidents. France's strategic autonomy is the first among these principles because it conditions the exercise of the country's sovereignty and freedom of action; in an international system marked by instability and uncertainty, France wants to preserve its ability to decide and act alone to defend its interests. As an essential condition for the credibility of France's action and the protection of its interests, maintaining an independent nuclear deterrent over the long term is a second intangible pillar of France's defence strategy. The Strategic Review confirms that it will continue to be based on two complementary components, airborne and oceanic.

Strategic Functions

The mission of the Armed Forces is to ensure the defence dimension of France's national security policy, which is based on five strategic functions:

• Knowledge and anticipation, which enables strategic anticipation and conditions the operational effectiveness of the forces, thanks in particular to intelligence and foresight;

• Nuclear deterrence, the aim of which is to protect France against any state-sponsored aggression against its vital interests;

• Protection, the aim of which is to guarantee the integrity of the territory and provide the French people with effective protection against all risks and threats that could have a major impact, to preserve the continuity of the nation's major vital functions and to strengthen its resilience;

• External intervention and its three objectives: ensuring the protection of French nationals abroad, defending the strategic interests of France and its allies, and exercising its international responsibilities;

• Prevention, which includes the development of national and international standards as well as the fight against trafficking, disarmament and peace-building.

While all these strategic functions are interministerial in nature, the armed forces carry the bulk of the nuclear deterrence, protection and external intervention functions. These five strategic functions have been updated, placing greater emphasis on their complementarity and on the importance of intelligence, diplomatic and humanitarian action as well as multilateralism and international alliances in ensuring France's defence and security.

In the name of strategic autonomy, France has historically always chosen to continue to have a complete army model, without major impasse in continuity. The Strategic Review states that in order to ensure the missions assigned to them under these five strategic functions "French armies will have to be capable of operating across the entire spectrum, which justifies maintaining a complete and balanced army model, a condition of French strategic autonomy. This structuring ambition was reaffirmed by the White Papers on defence and national security.". The Military Programming Bill provides for an increase in defence budgets to maintain and modernise this "complete and balanced army model".

Operational Engagements

The government defines the French armed forces' engagement capabilities in the form of a list of "operational contracts" that they must be capable of fulfilling with regard to the five strategic functions, and which correspond to permanent missions or non-permanent missions of intervention outside borders, in response to different types of crisis or war situations. For nuclear deterrence, armies ensure a permanent standby posture for both components, oceanic with an operational SSBN at sea, and airborne with Rafale aircraft armed with nuclear ASMPA. In terms of protection, the contract for the Army is to be able to provide up to 10,000 soldiers to contribute to the protection of the territory against the terrorist threat, thus perpetuating the Sentinel system. The protection function also revolves "around the permanent postures of air and maritime security", which are traditional missions of the French Air Force and Navy. Finally, a cyber defence system is provided by the COMCYBER set up in. In the field of knowledge and anticipation, a permanent strategic intelligence posture is ensured, based on human and technical resources (satellites, human intelligence, information processing, cyber...) which are increasing rapidly. With regard to crisis management and external intervention, the government provides: "the armed forces may be engaged over the long term and simultaneously in three theatres of operation, with the capacity to assume the role of framework nation in a theatre and to be a major contributor within a coalition". This requirement translates into a cumulative volume of deployable forces as follows:

• Projectable joint staffs;

• Army: it must be capable of projecting 15,000 troops abroad in the event of a major event and for a limited period of time. For more regional crises, closer to home, a first national emergency level provides for a Joint Rapid Reaction Force (JRRF) with 5,000 troops on permanent alert, 2,300 of whom can be deployed within a week. Over the long term, it should be able to commit the equivalent of a land brigade in external operations in two or three different theatres, i.e. 6,000 to 7,000 troops;

• French Navy: a naval aviation group and a submarine force;

• Air Force: 45 fighter planes.

Equipment

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These are various lists of the equipment currently fielded by the French Armed Forces (French: Forces armées françaises) service branches. The French Armed Forces provides for the renewal of the operational capabilities of armies whose equipment, used intensively in external operations, is often old and worn out. These include the following:

• Nuclear deterrent force: for the oceanic component, completion of the modernisation of the four missile-launching submarines (SNLE), commissioning of the M51.3 missile and development of the future version of the M51 missile; for the airborne component, the mid-life renovation of the improved medium-range air-to-ground missile (ASMPA).

• Army, the 115,000 soldiers will have renovated Leclerc tanks, half of the new vehicles in the Scorpion armoured vehicle programme (VBMR Griffon and EBRC Jaguar delivered), VBMR-L light multi-role armoured vehicles, some additional Caesar-type guns, combat helicopters (Eurocopter EC665 Tiger), manoeuvring helicopters (Eurocopter EC725 Caracal).

• Navy: a submarine force of nuclear-powered submarines, a surface force comprising two aircraft carrier with combat aircraft, amphibious helicopter carriers (PHA), first-class frigates, surveillance frigates and ocean patrol vessels, a mine warfare force, force supply ships (BRF), a maritime patrol aircraft.

• Air Force: combat aircraft (Rafale and Mirage 2000-D, Mirage 2000 C and -5), airborne detection and command systems (AWACS), tanker aircraft (MRTT) and transport aircraft (CASA CN-235, C-130 Hercules and Airbus A400M Atlas). France is the only western European country to have an independent nuclear deterrent force and to have aircraft carriers with catapult take-off and horizontal docking like the American aircraft carrier.

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