 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "French Army" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheFrench Army, officially known as theLand Army (French:Armée de terre,pronounced[aʁmed(ə)tɛʁ],lit. 'Army of Land'), is the principalland warfare force ofFrance, and the largest component of theFrench Armed Forces; it is responsible to theGovernment of France, alongside theFrench Navy,French Air and Space Force, and theNational Gendarmerie.[3] The Army is commanded by theChief of Staff of the French Army (CEMAT), who is subordinate of theChief of the Defence Staff (CEMA), who commands active service Army units and in turn is responsible to thePresident of France.[4] CEMAT is also directly responsible to theMinistry of the Armed Forces for administration, preparation, and equipment.
The French Army, following theFrench Revolution, has generally been composed of a mixed force ofconscripts and professional volunteers. It is now considered a professional force, since theFrench Parliament suspended theconscription of soldiers.
According to British historianNiall Ferguson, out of all recordedconflicts which occurred since the year 387 BC, France has fought in 168 of them, won 109, lost 49 and drawn 10; this makes France the most successful military power in European history in terms of number of fought and won.[5][anachronism]
The first permanent army ofFrance, which was paid with regular wages instead of being supplied byfeudal levies, was established in the early 15th century underCharles VII. It was formed due to the need for reliable troops during theHundred Years' War, though the Army was not disbanded because it saw continued use by theKings of France following the conflict. Upon the outbreak of a conflict, anordonnance would be issued to govern the length of service, composition and payment of units.
TheCompagnies d'ordonnance formed the core of theGendarme well into the 16th century, and were stationed throughout France and summoned into larger armies as needed. There was also provisions made forfrancs-archers, which was a militia of bowmen and foot soldiers raised from the non-noble classes, but the units were disbanded once war ended.[6]
Meanwhile, the bulk of infantry was still provided by urban or provincial militias, which were raised from an area or city to fight locally and that were named for their recruiting grounds. Gradually, the units became more permanent, and in the late 15th century, Swiss instructors were recruited, and some of the 'Bandes' (Militia) were combined to form temporary 'Legions' of up to 9000 men. The men would be paid, contracted to fight and receive military training.
Henry II further regularised the French Army by forming standing infantry regiments to replace the Militia structure. The first of them (Régiments de Picardie, Piémont, Navarre and Champagne) were calledLes Vieux Corps (The Old Corps). It was normal policy to disband regiments after a war was over as a cost-saving measure with theVieux Corps and theFrench Royal Guard being the only survivors.
Regiments could be raised directly by the King and so be called after the region in which they were raised or by the nobility and so called after the noble or his appointed colonel. WhenLouis XIII came to the throne, he disbanded most of the regiments in existence, leaving only theVieux and a handful of others, which became known as thePetite Vieux and also gained the privilege of not being disbanded after a war.
In 1684, there was a major reorganisation of the French infantry and another in 1701 to fit in withLouis XIV's plans and theWar of the Spanish Succession. The reshuffle created many of the modern regiments of the French Army and standardised their equipment and tactics. The army of the Sun King tended to wear grey-white coats withcoloured linings. There were exceptions and the foreign troops, recruited from outside France, wore red (Swiss, Irish etc.) or blue (Germans, Scots etc.) while theFrench Guards wore blue. In addition to the regiments of the line theMaison du Roi provided several elite units, theSwiss Guards, French Guards and the Regiments ofMusketeers being the most famous. The white/grey coated French Infantry of the lineLes Blancs with their Charleville muskets were a feared foe on the battlefields of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, fighting in theNine Years' War, the Wars of Spanish andAustrian Succession, theSeven Years' War and theAmerican Revolution.[7]
TheFrench Revolution caused the Army to lose most of its officers toaristocratic flight or theguillotine, and thus it became demoralised and ineffective. The revolutionary militias ofSans-culottes, and the bourgeoiseNational Guard formed the nucleus of theFrench Revolutionary Army alongside the remnants of the dissolvedRoyal French Army; it was created following thestorming of the Tuileries palace, where theFrench National Guard joined the revolt, the loyalSwiss Guards were massacred and the King was deposed.
From 1792, the Revolutionary Army fought against a combination of European powers in theFrench Revolutionary Wars, with the state directing most of its industry and population to war efforts, marking the start of modernconscription in the world,[8] it also allowed more flexible military strategies, setting way forNapoleonic warfare. Moreover, many noble officers were retired, decreasingstratification and increasingmilitary specialism. These, and the extreme investments into war efforts allowed France to begin asteady advance into Europe.
UnderNapoleon I, theFrench Imperial Army conquered most of Europe during theNapoleonic Wars. Professionalising again from the Revolutionary forces and using columns of attack with heavy artillery support and swarms of pursuit cavalry the French army under Napoleon and his marshals was able to outmanoeuvre and destroy the allied armies repeatedly until 1812. Napoleon introduced the concept of all armsCorps, each one a traditional army 'in miniature', permitting the field force to be split across several lines of march and rejoin or to operate independently. TheGrande Armée operated by seeking a decisive battle with each enemy army and then destroying them in detail before rapidly occupying territory and forcing a peace.
In 1812, Napoleon invaded theRussian Empire with a newGrande Armee, seeking to remove their influence fromeastern Europe and secure the frontiers of hisempire and client states. The campaign initially went well, but the vast distances of theRussian Steppe and its cold winter forced his army into a shambling retreat preyed on by Russian raids and pursuit. This force could not be replaced and with the "ulcer" of the ongoing war in the Iberian peninsula against Britain and Portugal, the French Army was badly short of trained troops and French manpower was almost exhausted.
After Napoleon's abdication and return, halted by an Anglo-Dutch and Prussian alliance at Waterloo, the French army was placed back under the restored Bourbon Monarchy. The structure remained largely unchanged and many officers of the Empire retained their positions.[9]
The Bourbon restoration was a time of political instability with the country constantly on the verge of political violence.[7] The army was committed to therestoration of Spanish monarchial absolutism in 1824. It achieved its aims in six months, but did not fully withdraw until 1828. By comparison with the earlier Napoleonic invasion, this expedition was rapid and successful.
.png)
Taking advantage of the weakness of the localbey, theFrench invasion of Algiers in 1830 again rapidly overcame initial resistance. The French government formallyannexed Algeria but it took nearly 45 years to fully pacify the country. This period of French history saw the creation of theArmée d’Afrique, which included theLégion étrangère. The Army was now uniformed in dark blue coats and red trousers, which it would retain until the First World War.
The news of the fall of Algiers had barely reached Paris in 1830 when the Bourbon Monarchy wasoverthrown and replaced by the constitutionalOrleans Monarchy. During theJuly 1830 revolution, the Paris mobs proved too much for the troops of theMaison du Roi and the main body of the French Army, sympathetic to the crowds, did not become heavily involved.
In 1848 a wave of revolutions swept Europe andbrought an end to the French monarchy. The army was largely uninvolved in the street fighting in Paris which overthrew the King but later in the year troops were used in the suppression of the moreradical elements of the new Republic which led to the election of Napoleon's nephew as president.
The Pope had been forced out of Rome as part of the Revolutions of 1848, and Louis Napoleon sent a 14,000 man expeditionary force of troops to the Papal State under GeneralNicolas Charles Victor Oudinot to restore him. In late April 1849, it was defeated and pushed back from Rome byGiuseppi Garibaldi's volunteer corps, but then recovered and recaptured Rome.
The French army was among the first in the world to be issued withMinié rifles, just in time for theCrimean War against Russia, allied with Britain. This invention gave line infantry a weapon with a much longer range and greater accuracy and lead to new flexible tactics. The French army was more experienced at mass manoeuvre and war fighting than the British and the reputation of the French army was greatly enhanced.
A series of colonial expeditions followed and in 1856 France joined theSecond Opium War on the British side against China; obtaining concessions. French troops were deployed intoItaly against the Austrians, the first use of railways for mass movement.
The French army was now considered to be an example to others and military missions toJapan and the emulation of FrenchZouaves in other militaries added to this prestige. However, anexpedition to Mexico failed to create a stable puppet régime.
France was humiliated following its defeat in theFranco-Prussian War, and while the army had far superior infantry weapons in the form of theChassepot andMitrailleuse, its tactics and artillery were inferior, and by allowing thePrussian Army to take the initiative, the French Army was rapidly bottled up into its fortress towns and defeated. The loss of prestige within the army lead to a great emphasis on aggression and close quarter tactics.
In August 1914, following the outbreak of theGreat War, theFrench Armed Forces numbered some 1,300,000 soldiers, and by the end of the war the French Army had called up 8,817,000 men, including 900,000 colonial troops; of these around 1,397,000 French soldiers were killed in action, mostly on theWestern Front. French soldiers, at the beginning of the war, still wore the colourful uniforms of theFranco-Prussian War, with this conspicuous dress proving unsuited to the trenches and, accordingly, by 1915 the mostly blue and red peacetime uniforms had been replaced bybleu-horizon (light blue-grey), with theAdrian helmet in place of thekepi. The traditionalcapote of the French infantry continued to be worn in the trenches but inbleu-horizon. Colonial and North African soldiers adopted khaki uniforms.[7]
In May 1940, at the beginning ofWorld War II's six-week longBattle of France, the French Army deployed 2,240,000 combatants grouped into 94divisions (of which 20 were active and 74 werereservists) from the Swiss border to theNorth Sea.These numbers did not include the Army of the Alps facing Italy or the 600,000 men dispersed through theFrench colonial empire. After defeat in June 1940, the government ofVichy France was allowed to retain 100–120,000Armistice Army personnel in thezone libre, as well as larger forces across the French colonial empire: more than 220,000 in Africa (including 140,000 inFrench North Africa),[10] and forces inMandate for Syria and the Lebanon andFrench Indochina.[11]Free French Forces, under the command ofCharles de Gaulle, continued the fight with the Allies until the final defeat of the Axis in 1945.
After 1945, despite enormous efforts in theFirst Indochina War of 1945–54 and theAlgerian War of 1954–62, both lands eventually left French control. French units stayed in Germany after 1945, forming theFrench Forces in Germany.5th Armored Division stayed on in Germany after 1945, while 1st and 3rd Armoured Divisions were established in Germany in 1951. HoweverNATO-assigned formations were withdrawn to fight in Algeria; 5th Armoured Division arrived in Algeria in April 1956.[12] From 1948 to 1966, many French Army units fell under the integratedNATO Military Command Structure.[13] Commander-in-ChiefAllied Forces Central Europe was a French Army officer, and many key NATO staff positions were filled by Frenchmen. While an upper limit of 14 French divisions committed to NATO had been set by the Treaty of Paris, the total did not exceed six divisions during the Indochina War, and during the Algerian War the total fell as low as two divisions.
The Army created two parachute divisions in 1956, the10th Parachute Division under the command of GeneralJacques Massu and the25th Parachute Division under the command of General Sauvagnac.[14] After theAlgiers putsch, the two divisions, with the 11th Infantry Division, were merged into a new light intervention division, the 11th Light Intervention Division, on 1 May 1961.[15]
During theCold War, the French Army, though leaving theNATO Military Command Structure in 1966, planned for the defence of Western Europe.[16] In 1977 the French Army switched from multi-brigade divisions to smaller divisions of about four to five battalions/regiments each. From the early 1970s,2nd Army Corps was stationed in South Germany, and effectively formed a reserve for NATO'sCentral Army Group. In the 1980s,3rd Army Corps headquarters was moved toLille and planning started for its use in support of NATO'sNorthern Army Group. TheRapid Action Force of five light divisions, including the new 4th Airmobile and6th Light Armoured Divisions, was also intended as a NATO reinforcement force. In addition, the152nd Infantry Division was maintained to guard theS3intercontinental ballistic missile base on the Plateau d'Albion.
In the 1970s–1980s, two light armoured divisions were planned to be formed from school staffs (the 12th and 14th). The 12th Light Armoured Division (12 DLB) was to have its headquarters to be formed on the basis of the staff of theArmoured and Cavalry Branch Training School atSaumur.[17]
In the late 1970s an attempt was made to form 14 reserve light infantry divisions, but this plan was too ambitious. The planned divisions included the 102nd, the 104th, 107e, 108e, the109th Infantry Division [fr], 110e, 111e, 112e, 114e, 115th, and 127th Infantry Divisions. From June 1984, the French Army reserve consisted of 22 military divisions, administering all reserve units in a certain area, sevenbrigades de zone de défense, 22régiments interarmées divisionnaires, and the 152nd Infantry Division, defending the ICBM launch sites.[18] The plan was put into action from 1985, andbrigades de zone, such as the 107th Brigade de Zone, were created.[19] But with the putting-in-place of the "Réserves 2000" plan, the brigades de zone were finally disbanded by mid-1993.[a]1st Army Corps was disbanded on 1 July 1990; 2nd Army Corps in August 1993.
At the end of theSecond World War, France was immediately confronted with the beginnings of thedecolonisation movement. The French army, which had employed indigenous North Africanspahis andtirailleurs in almost all of its campaigns since 1830, was the leading force in opposition to decolonization, which was perceived as a humiliation.[20] In Algeria the Army repressed an extensive rising in and aroundSétif in May 1945 with heavy fire: figures for Algerian deaths vary between 45,000 as claimed by Radio Cairo at the time[21] and the official French figure of 1,020.[22]
The Army saw maintaining control of Algeria as a high priority. By this time, one million French settlers had established themselves, alongside an indigenous population of nine million. When it decided that politicians were about to sell them out and give independence to Algeria, the Army engineered a military coup that toppled the civilian government and put General de Gaulle back in power in theMay 1958 crisis. De Gaulle, however, recognized that Algeria was a dead weight and had to be cut free. Four retired generals then launched theAlgiers putsch of 1961 against de Gaulle himself, but it failed. After 400,000 deaths, Algeria finally became independent. Hundreds of thousands ofHarkis, Muslims loyal to Paris, went into exile in France, where they and their children and grandchildren remain in poorly assimilated "banlieue" suburbs.[23]
The Army repressed theMalagasy Uprising in Madagascar in 1947. French officials estimated the number of Malagasy killed from a low of 11,000 to a French Army estimate of 89,000.[24]
.jpg)
In February 1996, PresidentJacques Chirac began the transition of the Army to a professional force, and as part of the resulting changes, ten regiments were dissolved in 1997.[25]
On 1 July 1997, the specialized support brigades were transferred to variouscommunes;Lunéville for signals,Haguenau for artillery andStrasbourg for engineers. On 1 September 1997, the2nd Armoured Division leftVersailles and was installed atChâlons-en-Champagne in place of the disbanded10th Armoured Division. On 5 March 1998, in view of the ongoing structural adoptions of the French Army, theMinister of Defence decided to disbandIII Corps, and the dissolution became effective 1 July 1998. The headquarters transitioned to become HeadquartersCommandement de la force d'action terrestre (CFAT) (the Land Forces Action Command).
During the professionalisation process, numbers decreased from the 236,000 (132,000 conscripts) in 1996 to around 140,000.[26] By June 1999, the Army's strength was 186,000, including around 70,000 conscripts. 38 of 129 regiments were planned to be stood down from 1997 to 1999. The previous structure's nine 'small' divisions and sundry separate combat and combat support brigades were replaced by nine combat and four combat support brigades. The Rapid Action Force, a corps of five small rapid-intervention divisions formed in 1983, was also disbanded, though several of its divisions were re-subordinated.
Opération Sentinelle is a French military operation with 10,000 soldiers and 4,700 police and gendarmes deployed since the aftermath of theJanuary 2015 Île-de-France attacks, with the objective of protecting sensitive "points" of the territory fromterrorism. It was reinforced during theNovember 2015 Paris attacks, and was part of astate of emergency in France due to continued terror threats and attacks.[27][28][29]
| French Army |
|---|
 |
| Components |
| Administration |
| Chief of Army Staff |
| Equipment |
| Modern Equipment |
| Personnel |
| History |
| Military history of France |
| Awards |
The organisation of the army is fixed by Chapter 2 of Title II of Book II of the Third Part of the Code of Defense, notably resulting in the codification of Decree 2000-559 of 21 June 2000.[30]
In terms of Article R.3222-3 of the Code of Defence,[31] the Army comprises:
The French Army was reorganized in 2016. The new organisation consists of two combineddivisions (carrying the heritage of1st Armored and3rd Armored divisions) and given three combat brigades to supervise each. There is also theFranco-German Brigade. The4th Airmobile Brigade was reformed to direct the three combat helicopter regiments. There are also several division-level (niveau divisionnaire) specialized commands including Intelligence, Information and communication systems, Maintenance, Logistics, Special Forces,Army Light Aviation, theForeign Legion,National Territory, Training.
The Army is divided into arms (armes). They include the Infantry (which includes theChasseurs Alpins, specialist mountain infantry, theTroupes de Marine, heirs of colonial troops and specialist amphibious troops), theArmoured Cavalry Arm (Arme Blindée Cavalerie), the Artillery, theEngineering Arm (l'arme du génie),Matériel, Logistics (Train) and Signals (Transmissions).[32] Each brigade will have severalarmes within its units.
TheFrench Foreign Legion was established in 1831 for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces. The Legion is commanded by French officers. It is an elite military unit numbering around 9,000 troops. The Legion has gained worldwide recognition for its service, most recently inOperation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan since 2001. It is not strictly anArme but acommandement particulier, whose regiments belong to several arms, notably the infantry and the engineering arm.
TheTroupes de marine are the former Colonial Troops. They are the first choice units for overseas deployment and recruit on this basis. They are composed of Marine Infantry (Infanterie de Marine) (which includes parachute regiments such as1er RPIMa and a tank unit, theRégiment d'infanterie-chars de marine) and the Marine Artillery (Artillerie de Marine).
TheAviation légère de l'armée de Terre (ALAT, which translates asArmy Light Aviation), was established on 22 November 1954 for observation, reconnaissance, assault and supply duties. It operates numerous helicopters in support of the French Army, its primary attack helicopter is theEurocopter Tiger, of which 80 were ordered. It is anArme with acommandement particulier.
On the administrative side, there are now no more than oneDirectorate and two services.
The Army Human Resources Directorate (DRHAT) manages human resources (military and civilian) of the Army and training.
The two Services are the service of ground equipment, and the integrated structure of operational maintenance of terrestrial materials (SIMMT, former DCMAT). This joint oriented service is responsible for project management support for all land equipment of the French army. The holding-operational equipment the Army is headed by the Service de maintenance industrielle terrestre (SMITer).
Historically there were other services of the Army who were all grouped together with their counterparts in other components to form joint agencies serving the entire French Armed Forces.
After the health service and the fuel service were both replaced respectively by theFrench Defence Health service andMilitary Fuel Service, other services have disappeared in recent years:
The Army Commissariat was dissolved on 31 December 2009 and intégrated into the joint-service Service du commissariat des armées.
There is theDiocese of the French Armed Forces which provides pastoral care toCatholic members of the Army. It is headed byLuc Ravel and is headquartered inLes Invalides.
On 24 July 1873, theFrench Parliament passed a law which created 18 military regions inmetropolitan France.[33] A19th Army Corps was created in Algeria in September 1873 (seeRégion militaire [fr]). In 1905, the strength of theTroupes coloniales stationed in the 19 military districts of metropolitan France was reported at 2,123 officers and 26,581 other ranks.[34] In 1946, following the Second World War ten military regions were created or recreated, in accordance with a decree of 18 February 1946. They included the 1st (Paris); 2e (Lille); 3e (Rennes); 4e (Bordeaux); 5e (Toulouse); 6e (Metz); 7e (Dijon); 8th (Lyon); the 9th (Marseille), and the 10th in Algeria. The10th Military Region (France) supervisedFrench Algeria during theAlgerian War.[35]
TheDéfense opérationnelle du territoire supervised reserve and home defence activities from 1959[36] to the 1970s.[37] However, by the 1980s the number had been reduced to six: the1st Military Region (France) with its headquarters in Paris, the2nd Military Region (France) atLille, the3rd Military Region (France) atRennes, the4th Military Region (France) atBordeaux, the5th at Lyons and the6th at Metz.[38] Each supervised up to fivedivision militaire territoriale – military administrative sub-divisions, in 1984 sometimes supervising up to three reserve regiments each. Today, under the latest thorough reform of the French security and defence sector, there are sevenZone de défense et de sécurité [fr] each with a territorial ground army region: Paris (or Île-de-France, HQ in Paris), Nord (HQ in Lille), Ouest (HQ in Rennes), Sud-Ouest (HQ in Bordeaux), Sud (HQ in Marseille), Sud-Est (HQ in Lyon), Est (HQ in Strasbourg).[39]
| Personnel strength of the French Army 2022 | |
| Category | Strength |
|---|---|
| Commissioned officers | 14,155 |
| Non-commissioned officers | 38,684 |
| EVAT | 61,372 |
| VDAT | 466 |
| Civilian employees | 8,119 |
| Source: Ministère de Armées[40] | |
As of 2020[update], the French Army employed 118,600 personnel; this includes the 9,000-strongFrench Foreign Legion and 8,500-strongParis Fire Brigade. In addition, thereserves of the French Army consist of 25,000 personnel.[1]
Enlistment contracts for French army soldiers can range from a one to a five-year contract, which are all renewable. Meanwhile,Non-commissioned officers serve on permanent contracts, or exceptionally on renewable five years-contracts. Though NCO candidates are required to have a high school diploma that grants them access to university.École Nationale des Sous-Officiers d’Active (ENSOA), Basic NCO school of 8 months, followed by combat school of 4 to 36 weeks depending on occupational specialty. A small number of NCO candidates are trained at theEcole Militaire de Haute Montagne (EMHM) (High Mountain Military School). NCOs with the Advanced Army Technician Certificate (BSTAT) can serve asplatoon leaders.
All Career officers serve on permanent contracts, with direct entry cadets with two years ofClasse préparatoire aux grandes écoles or abachelor's degree spend three years atÉcole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr (ESM), and graduate asFirst Lieutenants. Direct entry cadets with amaster's degree spend one year at ESM, and graduate as First Lieutenants. Non-commissioned officers with three years in the army, spend two years atÉcole militaire interarmes, and graduate as First Lieutenants. 50% of the commissioned officers in the French Army are former NCOs.
Contract officers serve on renewable contracts for a maximum of 20 years service. A bachelor's degree is required. There are two different programs, combat officers and specialist officers. Officers in both programs graduate asSecond Lieutenants and may reachLieutenant Colonels rank. Combat officers spend eight months at ESM, followed by one year at a combat school. Specialist officers spend three months at ESM, followed by a year of on the job-training within an area of specialization determined by the type of degree held.
Civilian women were hired by the French army in the First World War, thereby opening new opportunities for them, forcing a redefinition of military identity, and revealing the strength of anti-Republicanism within the Army. Officers by the 1920s accepted women as part of their institution.[41]
In 1999, the Army issued theCode of the French Soldier, which includes the injunctions:
Mastering his own strength, he respects his opponent and is careful to spare civilians. He obeys orders while respecting laws, customs of war and international conventions. (...) He is aware of global societies and respects their differences.[b]
The rank insignia ofcommissioned officers.
| NATO code | OF-10 | OF-9 | OF-8 | OF-7 | OF-6 | OF-5 | OF-4 | OF-3 | OF-2 | OF-1 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 French Army[42] |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |||||||||||||
| Maréchal de France | Général d'armée | Général de corps d'armée | Général de division | Général de brigade | Colonel | Lieutenant-colonel | Commandant | Capitaine | Lieutenant | Sous-lieutenant | ||||||||||||||
The rank insignia ofnon-commissioned officers andenlisted personnel.
In the 1970s, France adopted a light beige dress uniform which is worn with colouredkepis,[43]sashes, fringedepaulettes,fourragères and other traditional items on appropriate occasions. The most commonly worn parade dress, however, consists of camouflage uniforms worn with the dress items noted above. The camouflage pattern, officially calledCamouflage Centre Europe (CE), draws heavily on the colouration incorporated into the USM81 woodland pattern, but with a thicker and heavier striping. A desert version called theCamouflage Daguet has been worn since theGulf War which consists of large irregular areas of chestnut brown and light grey on a sand khaki base.
The legionnaires of theForeign Legion wear white kepis, blue sashes, and green and red epaulettes as dress uniform, while theTroupes de marine wear blue and red kepis and yellow epaulettes. The pioneers of the Foreign Legion wear the basic legionnaire uniform but with leather aprons and gloves. TheChasseurs Alpins wear a largeberet, known as the "tarte" (thepie) with dark blue or white mountain outfits. TheSpahis retain the long white cloak or "burnous" of the regiment's origin as North African cavalry.
The military cadets ofSaint-Cyr and theÉcole Polytechnique retain their late 19th century dress uniforms.[44] A dark blue/black evening dress is authorized for officers[45] and individual branches or regiments may parade bands or "fanfares" in historic dress dating as far back as the Napoleonic period.
.jpg)
.svg)
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)
| Armoured cavalry | |
|---|---|
| Artillery, transport and combat engineering | |
| French Army Light Aviation | |
| NATO land forces |  | |
|---|---|---|
