Military of France
Encyclopedia : M : MI : MIL : Military of France
| ||||||||||||||
The military of France has a long history of serving its country. It is currently one of the world's most powerful and technologically advanced armed forces. The President of the Republic is the Commander-in-Chief of the French military, which counts the defense of national territory, the protection of French interests abroad, and the maintenance of global stability as some of its primary objectives.
Organization
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 gouvernement (the executive cabinet of ministers, who are not necessarily of the same political side as the president). The Minister of Defence (as of 2005, Michèle Alliot-Marie) oversees the military's funding, procurement and operations.The French armed forces are divided into four branches:
- Army (Armée de Terre), including
- * Chasseurs Alpins
- * Foreign Legion (Légion étrangère)
- * Marine troops
- * light aviation (ALAT - Aviation Légére de l'Armée de Terre)
- * engineers (Génie)
- ** including Paris Fire Brigade
- Navy (Marine Nationale), including
- * Naval Air
- * naval fusiliers and naval commandos
- * Including Marseille Fire Battalion
- Air Force (Armée de l'Air) including
- * territorial Air Defence
- * air fusiliers
- Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie Nationale), a military police force which serves for the most part as a rural and general purpose police force.
They also include the following services:
- Délégation Générale pour l'Armement (which can be roughly translated as the General Delegation to Weaponry). The DGA is the French defence procurement agency and is mixed military/civilian service, which included formely the Direction des Constructions Navales. It also supervises some engineering schools: the École Polytechnique, École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées, SUPAERO, the ENSICA and the ENSIETA.
- Health service of the armies, which operates
- Service of fuels.
Manpower
The total number of military personnel is approximately 300,000. However, 100,000 of these are in the Gendarmerie, and thus a vast majority of these 100,000 are used in everyday law enforcement operations inside France and are not fit for external operations. Elements of the Gendarmerie are however present in all French external operations, providing troops specialised in law enforcement and military policing.Previously, France relied a great deal on conscription to provide manpower for its military, with only a minority of career soldiers. Following the Algerian War of Independence, 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 mission. In 1996, President Jacques Chirac's government announced the end of conscription; in 2001, conscription was ended. However, young people must still register for possible conscription should the situation call for it, with the cosmetic change that now females must register as well.
International stance
| Military manpower | |
|---|---|
| Military age | 17 years of age with consent for voluntary military service (2001) |
| Availability | males age 15–49: 13,676,509 (2005 est.) |
| Fit for military service | males age 15–49: 11,262,661 (2005 est.) |
| Reaching military age annually | males: 389,204 (2005 est.) |
| Active troops | 259,050 (ranked 20th) |
| Military expenditures | |
| Amount | $45 billion (2005) |
| Percent of GDP | 2.6% (2005) |
Outside of NATO, France has actively and heavily participated in both coalition and unilateral peacekeeping efforts in Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, often taking a lead role in these operations. France has undertaken a major restructuring to develop a professional military which 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 rationalising equipment and the armaments industry. French active-duty military at the beginning numbers approximately 270,000 (World Almanac 2004), of which nearly 35,000 were assigned outside of metropolitan France.
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 and South Pacific states. France acceded 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. 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 is an active participant in the major supplier regimes designed to restrict transfer of technologies that could lead to 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 signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention.
See also: France and weapons of mass destruction
Recent operations
France provides, along with the United States and other countries, troops for the force stationed in Haiti, sanctioned by the United Nations, 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.
A force of a few thousand French soldiers, under a mandate from the UN (Opération Licorne), are stationned in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) on a peacekeeping mission. These troops were initially sent under the terms of a mutual protection pact between France and Côte d'Ivoire, but the mission has since evolved into the current UN peacekeeping operation.
Equipment
- The standard assault rifle is the FAMAS.
- Heavy armoured vehicles are bought from GIAT Industries.
- Aircraft are often purchased from Dassault Aviation.
See also
- Deployments of the French military
- Views of the French military
- Ranks in the French Army
- Ranks in the French Navy
- Ranks in the French Air Force
External links
Candidate countries: Albania • Croatia • Republic of Macedonia
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.