The French Armed Forces are the military forces of France. They consist of four military branches – the Army, the Navy, the Air and Space Force and the National Gendarmerie. The National Guard serves as the French Armed Forces' military reserve force. As stipulated by France's constitution, the president of France serves as commander-in-chief of the French military. France has the eighth largest defence budget in the world and the second largest in the European Union (EU). It also has the largest military by size in the EU. A 2015 Credit Suisse report ranked the French Armed Forces as the world's sixth most powerful military.
The French Air and Space Force is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the Service Aéronautique, a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the French Air Force. On 10 September 2020, it assumed its current name, the French Air and Space Force, to reflect an "evolution of its mission" into the area of outer space.
A parachutist badge is a military badge awarded by the armed forces of many states to soldiers who have received parachute training and completed the required number of jumps. It is difficult to assess which country was the first to introduce such an award.
Salon-de-Provence Air Base is a base of the French Air and Space Force located 4 km (2.5 mi) south Salon-de-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône in southern France.
The Commandement des Opérations Spéciales or COS is a joint staff charged with overseeing the various special forces of the French Army, Navy and Air and Space Force, bringing them all under a single operational authority. The command is placed under the orders of the Chief of Defence Staff and under the direct authority of the President of the French Republic.
Air Base 115 Orange-Caritat is a French Air and Space Force base in Vaucluse, France. It is equipped with one runway and was named after Maurice de Seynes, a French-Soviet aircraft pilot. It is located 5 kilometres (3 mi) east of Orange, a commune in the Vaucluse department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in France.
The Fusiliers Commandos de l'Air of the French Air and Space Force are equivalent to the United Kingdom's RAF Regiment, German Air Force Regiment or the United States Air Force Security Forces. They are airmen armed and trained as infantry, who provide ground defense of air bases and secure forward base areas. They also participate in forward air control, combat search and rescue missions, and as air assault ground soldiers.
The 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment or 1er RPIMa is a unit of the French Army Special Forces Command, therefore part of the Special Operations Command.
The Chief of the Defence Staff is the military head of the Armed Forces of the French Republic, overseeing all military operations. They are responsible to the Minister of the Armed Forces and their deputy is the Major General of the Defence Staff. Since the 1950s, the office has been held only by four-star generals (OF–9), either from the Army, the Navy, or the Air and Space Force. The current Chief is General Thierry Burkhard, who took the position on 22 July 2021.
Air Base 126 Solenzara is a French Air and Space Force (ALAE) base located in the village of Ventiseri approximately 40 km north-northeast of Porto-Vecchio on Corsica. It is just north of the mouth of the Travo River on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Valence - Chabeuil Airport is an airport in France, located about 5 miles (8 km) east of Valence and approximately 300 miles (483 km) south-southeast of Paris.
The units and formations of the French Army which fought in the Algerian War changed over time.
The Second Battle of Gao was the recapture of the city of Gao from Islamist MOJWA fighters by Malian/French forces. It took place in January 2013 within the Northern Mali Conflict.
The Air Forces Command is a command of the French Air and Space Force. It is headquartered at Bordeaux-Mérignac Air Base.
On May 9, 2019, French special operations forces conducted a rescue operation in Northern Burkina Faso, that resulted in the deaths of two French petty officers, four out of six gunmen, and the recovery of all four hostages of French, American, and South Korean nationality. The operation was conducted by approximately 24 operators from Commando Hubert, the 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment, and the Air Parachute Commando n° 10, CPA 10, with intelligence and overhead support from the United States Military.
France