Military of France: Encyclopedia II - Military of France - Organisation

Military of France - Organisation

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
  • French Foreign Legion
  • 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:

• General delegation to weaponry (defence procurement agency), military/civilian service, including
  • formerly, the Direction of Naval Constructions
  • supervision of some engineering schools (including École Polytechnique, École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées and SUPAERO)
• Health service of the armies, which operates a number of military hospitals
• Service of fuels.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Organisation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki