French Armed Forces Information
The French Armed Forces encompass the French Army, the French Navy, the French Air Force and the National Gendarmerie. The President of the Republic heads the armed forces, with the title "chef des armées" ("chief of the military forces"). The President is the supreme authority for military matters and is the sole official who can order a nuclear strike. The French military has, as some of its primary objectives, the defence of national territory, the protection of French interests abroad, and the maintenance of global stability.
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History
Main article: Military history of France Animated map of French territorial losses and gains from 985 to 1947. The colonial empire is shown bellow. Animated map showing growth and decline of the First and Second French colonial EmpireThe military history of France encompasses an immense panorama of conflicts and struggles extending for more than 2,000 years across areas including modern France, greater Europe, and European territorial possessions overseas. According to BBC History: "There have been 53 major wars in Europe, France had been a belligerent in 49 of them; UK 43. In 185 battles that France had fought over the past 800 years, their armies had won 132 times, lost 43 times and drawn only 10, giving the French military the best record of any country in Europe".[3]
Gallo-Roman conflict predominated from 60 BC to 50 BC, with the Romans emerging victorious in the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar. After the decline of the Roman Empire, a Germanic tribe known as the Franks took control of Gaul by defeating competing tribes. The "land of Francia," from which France gets its name, had high points of expansion under kings Clovis I and Charlemagne. In the Middle Ages, rivalries with England and the Holy Roman Empire prompted major conflicts such as the Norman Conquest and the Hundred Years' War. With an increasingly centralized monarchy, the first standing army since Roman times, and the use of artillery, France expelled the English from its territory and came out of the Middle Ages as the most powerful nation in Europe, only to lose that status to Spain following defeat in the Italian Wars. The Wars of Religion crippled France in the late 16th century, but a major victory over Spain in the Thirty Years' War made France the most powerful nation on the continent once more. In parallel, France developed its first colonial empire in Asia, Africa, and in the Americas. Under Louis XIV France achieved military supremacy over its rivals, but escalating conflicts against increasingly powerful enemy coalitions checked French ambitions and left the kingdom bankrupt at the opening of the 18th century.
Resurgent French armies secured victories in dynastic conflicts against the Spanish, Polish, and Austrian crowns. At the same time, France was fending off attacks on its colonies. As the 18th century advanced, global competition with Great Britain led to the Seven Years' War, where France lost its North American holdings. Consolation came in the form of dominance in Europe and the American Revolutionary War, where extensive French aid in the form of money and arms, and the direct participation of its army and navy led to America's independence.[4] Internal political upheaval eventually led to 23 years of nearly continuous conflict in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. France reached the zenith of its power during this period, dominating the European continent in an unprecedented fashion under Napoleon Bonaparte, but by 1815 it had been restored to its pre-Revolutionary borders. The rest of the 19th century witnessed the growth of the Second French colonial empire as well as French interventions in Belgium, Spain, and Mexico. Other major wars were fought against Russia in the Crimea, Austria in Italy, and Prussia within France itself.
Following defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Franco-German rivalry erupted again in the First World War. France and its allies were victorious this time. Social, political, and economic upheaval in the wake of the conflict led to the Second World War, in which the Allies were defeated in the Battle of France and the French government surrendered and was replaced with an authoritarian regime. The Allies, including the government in exile's Free French Forces and later a liberated French nation, eventually emerged victorious over the Axis Powers. As a result, France secured an occupation zone in Germany and a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. The imperative of avoiding a third Franco-German conflict on the scale of those of two world wars paved the way for European integration starting in the 1950s. France became a nuclear power and since the 1990s its military action is most often seen in cooperation with NATO and its European partners.
Recent International stance
Defence agreements of France in 2008: France Other NATO members Other bilateral defence agreements, with Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, the United Arab Emirates,[4] Gabon, Kuwait, Qatar, Senegal and Togo[5]French military doctrine is based on the concepts of national independence, nuclear deterrence (see Force de frappe), and military self-sufficiency. France is a charter member of NATO, and has worked actively with its allies to adapt NATO—internally and externally—to the post-Cold War environment. In December 1995, France announced that it would increase its participation in NATO's military wing, including the Military Committee (France withdrew from NATO's military bodies in 1966 whilst remaining full participants in the Organisation's political Councils). France remains a firm supporter of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and other cooperative efforts. Paris hosted the May 1997 NATO-Russia Summit which sought the signing of the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security.
Outside of NATO, France has actively and heavily participated in both coalition and unilateral peacekeeping efforts in Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, frequently taking a lead role in these operations. France has undertaken a major restructuring to develop a professional military that will be smaller, more rapidly deployable, and better tailored for operations outside of mainland France. Key elements of the restructuring include: reducing personnel, bases and headquarters, and rationalistion of equipment and the armaments industry.
Since the end of the Cold War, France has placed a high priority on arms control and non-proliferation. French Nuclear testing in the Pacific, and the Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior strained French relations with its Allies, South Pacific states (namely New Zealand), and world opinion. France agreed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1992 and supported its indefinite extension in 1995. After conducting a controversial final series of six nuclear tests on Mururoa in the South Pacific, the French signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996. Since then, France has implemented a moratorium on the production, export, and use of anti-personnel landmines and supports negotiations leading toward a universal ban. The French are key players in the adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe to the new strategic environment.
France remains an active participant in: the major programs to restrict the transfer of technologies that could lead to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction: the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Australia Group (for chemical and biological weapons), and the Missile Technology Control Regime. France has also signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention.
See also: France and weapons of mass destruction2008 reforms
Main article: 2008 French White Paper on Defence and National SecurityOn 31 July 2007, President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered M. Jean-Claude Mallet, a member of the Council of State, to head up a thirty-five member commission charged with a wide-ranging review of French defence. The commission issued its White Paper in early 2008.[6] Acting upon its recommendations, President Sarkozy began making radical changes in French defence policy and structures starting in the summer of 2008. In keeping with post-Cold War changes in European politics and power structures, the French military's traditional focus on territorial defence will be redirected to meet the challenges of a global threat environment. Under the reorganisation, the identification and destruction of terrorist networks both in metropolitan France and in francophone Africa will be the primary task of the French military. Redundant military bases will be closed and new weapons systems projects put on hold to finance the restructuring and global deployment of intervention forces. In a historic change, Sarkozy furthermore has declared that France "will now participate fully in NATO," four decades after former French president General Charles de Gaulle withdrew from the alliance's command structure and ordered American troops off French soil.[7]
Recent operations
Recent OPEX: - Operation Licorne in Côte d'Ivoire (under UN mandate) - Contribution to the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti - International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (under UN mandate) - Contribution to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon; Opération Baliste - 2011 military intervention in Libya; Opération HarmattanThere are currently 36,000 French troops deployed in foreign territories—such operations are known as "OPEX" for Opérations Extérieures ("External Operations").
Along other countries, France provides troops for the United Nations force stationed in Haiti following the 2004 Haiti rebellion. France has sent troops, especially special forces, into Afghanistan to help the United States and NATO forces fight the remains of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. In Opération Licorne a force of a few thousand French soldiers is stationed in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) on a UN peacekeeping mission. These troops were initially sent under the terms of a mutual protection pact between France and the Côte d'Ivoire, but the mission has since evolved into the current UN peacekeeping operation. The French Armed Forces have also played a leading role in the ongoing UN peacekeeping mission along the Lebanon-Israel border as part of the cease-fire agreement that brought the 2006 Lebanon War to an end. Currently, France has 2,000 army personnel deployed along the border, including infantry, armour, artillery and air defence. There are also naval and air personnel deployed offshore.
The French Joint Force and Training Headquarters (L'Etat-Major Interarmees de Force et d'Entrainment) at Air Base 110 near Creil maintains the ability to command a medium or large-scale international operation, and runs exercises .[8]
In 2011, from 19 March, France participated, and is currently participating in the enforcement of a no-fly zone over northern Libya, during the Libyan Civil war, in order to prevent forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi from carrying out air attacks on Anti-Gaddafi forces. This operation was known as Opération Harmattan and was part of France's involvement in the conflict in the NATO-led coalition, enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1973.
Today
Personnel
Every year on Bastille Day, a large military parade is staged before the President of the Republic.The French Armed Forces have a reported strength of 251,750 civilian and military personnel, of those 32,750 are civilian personnel.[9][10][11] It roughly breaks down as follows;
- The French Army: 144,000 civilian and military personnel (excluding 7,000 Foreign Legion)
- The French Air Force: 58,000 civilian and military personnel
- The French Navy: 44,000 civilian and military personnel
However, the 2008 French White Paper on Defence and National Security will see the active number of civilian and military personnel fall to 225,000 personnel by 2014-2015. In addition, the French Armed Forces have approximately 70,000 reserves.
The French Armed Forces also includes a fourth branch, the National Gendarmerie (a type of paramilitary force), which had a reported strength of 105,389 [12] in 2006. They 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.
Historically, France 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. In 1996, President Jacques Chirac's government announced the end of conscription and in 2001, conscription formally was ended. Young people must still, however, register for possible conscription (should the situation call for it).
Structure
The titular head of the French armed forces is the President of the Republic, in his role as Chef des Armées—the President is thus Commander-in-Chief of French forces. However, the Constitution puts civil and military government forces at the disposal of the government (the executive cabinet of ministers, who are not necessarily of the same political side as the president). The Minister of Defence (as of 2012, Gérard Longuet) oversees the military's funding, procurement and operations.
The French armed forces are divided into four branches;
French Army
Main article: French ArmyArmy (Armée de Terre), including;
- Infantry (Infanterie)
- Chasseurs Alpins (mountain infantry)
- Armoured Cavalry (Arme Blindée Cavalerie)
- Airborne Cavalry (1st Parachute Hussar Regiment, 13th Parachute Dragoon Regiment, 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment)
- Artillery (Artillerie)
- Légion Étrangère (Foreign Legion) (infantry, cavalry, engineers)
- Troupes de Marine ('La Coloniale') (Marines troop) (infantry, cavalry, paratroopers, artillery)
- Army Light Aviation (Aviation Légére de l'Armée de Terre—ALAT)
- Engineers (Génie) including the Paris Fire Brigade
- Signals (Transmissions)
- Transport and logistics (Train)
- Supply (Matériel)
French Navy
Main article: French NavyNavy (Marine Nationale), including:
- Naval Air
- French Submarine Forces
- Fusiliers Marins (Sailor Riflemen) (naval ground troops) and naval commandos
- the Marseille Marine Fire Battalion
In addition, the National Gendarmerie form a Coast Guard force called the Gendarmerie Maritime which is commanded by the French Navy.
French Air Force
Main article: French Air ForceAir Force (Armée de l'Air) including:
- territorial Air Defence
- air fusiliers (air force ground troops)
- Commando parachutiste de l'air ( CPA 10 "Special force", CPA 20 "TACP" and CPA 30 " Resco" ) are specialized air force ground troops, and only CPA 10 is special force.
National Gendarmerie
Main article: National GendarmerieGendarmerie (Gendarmerie Nationale), a military police force which serves for the most part as a rural and general purpose police force, including:
- Gendarmerie Départementale (GD) (territorial police, criminal investigation ...)
- Gendarmerie Mobile (GM) (anti-riot units, counter-terrorism group (GIGN), foreign police assistance ...)
- Garde républicaine
- Gendarmerie des Transports Aériens (Airports security, traffic control ...)
- Gendarmerie de l'Air (Air Force security and provosts ...)
- Gendarmerie Maritime (Coast guards, Naval provosts ...)
Services
- SGA (Eng: Secretariat general de l'administration = administration and construction).
- Direction Générale de l'Armement (Eng: General Weaponry Directorate) is the French defence procurement agency (a mixed military/civilian service) that includes the former Direction des Constructions Navales. It also manages a number of engineering schools: the École Polytechnique, École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées, SUPAERO, the ENSICA (SUPAERO and the ENSICA merged in 2007 to create ISAE) and the ENSTA Bretagne;
- Health service of the armies (Eng: Service de Santé des Armées) operates a number of military hospitals.
- Fuel Services (Eng: Service des Essences des Armées = Army Fuels Service).
Gallery
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AMX 56 Leclerc Tank of Armée de terre
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The Charles De Gaulle, the nuclear aircraft carrier of Marine nationale
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Caïman marine NH90 of Marine nationale
See also
- Ranks in the French Army
- Ranks in the French Navy
- Ranks in the French Air Force
- Ranks in the French Gendarmerie
- Bastille Day Military Parade
- Franco-British Defence and Security Cooperation Treaty and Downing Street Declaration
References
- ^ "SIPRI Publications". Milexdata.sipri.org. http://milexdata.sipri.org/. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
- ^ "Defence Expenditures of NATO Countries (1985-2009)" (PDF). http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2010_06/20100610_PR_CP_2010_078.pdf. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
- ^ Quite Interesting: the QI cabinet of curiosity, The Telegraph[1]
- ^ "French Military base in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates". Defence Aviation. 2009-05-28. http://www.defenceaviation.com/2009/05/french-military-base-in-abu-dhabi.html. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
- ^ Que dit le Livre blanc sur les accords de défense ?, Ministry of Defence
- ^ Official Presidential Website, Letter of Engagement to M. Jean-Claude Mallet, 31 July 2007
- ^ Jim Hoagland, "France's Whirlwind of Change", Real Clear Politics, 18 June 2008 [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ "Chiffres clés" (in (French)). Defense.gouv.fr. http://www.defense.gouv.fr/air/presentation/chiffres-cles/chiffres-cles. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
- ^ "Forces". Defense.gouv.fr. 2011-07-18. http://www.defense.gouv.fr/english/navy/forces. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
- ^ "Direction des ressources humaines de l'armée de Terre" (in (French)). Defense.gouv.fr. 2012-01-30. http://www.defense.gouv.fr/terre/presentation/directions-commandements-et-centres/ressources-humaines/direction-des-ressources-humaines-de-l-armee-de-terre. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
- ^ Répartition des effectifs
External links
- Official site of the French Ministry of Defence
- French Military Strategy and NATO Reintegration—Council on Foreign Relations
- French Army rank insignia
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