Is troupe de marine a career path? Or do soldiers cycle in and out of the TDM?Quote:
Originally Posted by davidbfpo
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Is troupe de marine a career path? Or do soldiers cycle in and out of the TDM?Quote:
Originally Posted by davidbfpo
Two open sources on the TDM clearly state they are a career path partly as their primary service is abroad - which includes France's far-flung territories. See:http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...-de-marine.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troupes_de_marineQuote:
Originally Posted by ganulv
davidbfpo,
Where did it mention needing more/new Chinooks?
The SGTIAs are reminiscent of Marine Enhanced Company Operations/Distributed Operations, only with armored vehicles and task organization.
Not to put words in Dave’s mouth, but I assumed it was an indirect reference to the following on p. 38 of the report:Quote:
Originally Posted by B.Smitty
Quote:
The surgical “antennas” and “modules” refer to field hospitals. An antenna unit is a light, air-transportable unit designed with the capacity to serve the needs of 1,000 soldiers “exposed to occasional losses.” It is designed to be able to deploy within three hours and function without resupply for 48 hours. It can handle eight wounded a day and has ten beds for recovering patients. An antenna can also become the basis of a larger, more permanent structure. In contrast, a module provides only urgent critical care, after which patients must be evacuated immediately. The equipment associated with a module weighs less than a ton and can be transported by helicopter or dropped by parachute.
The French Army subscribes to the American concept of the “golden hour,” the idea that wounded soldiers need to receive critical care within an hour of receiving their injuries. In the case of Serval, French Army sources have stated that they were operating without adequate coverage to meet the golden hour standard of care. They had to make choices about how to divide medical coverage, such that an operation in one place might have adequate coverage to meet the golden hour standard while another operation going on at the same time somewhere else did not.
The quote is in a footnote (No.57) on pg.42 / 58 and it says:Quote:
Originally Posted by B.Smitty
Quote:
One French officer who commanded units in Serval, when asked by the author what American resources he wished he had had in Mali, answered "CH-47's".
Good catch. I missed that.Quote:
Originally Posted by davidbfpo
Smitty,
If you work for the Chinook makers I will claim my fee if France buys CH-47s.
They should have bought Australian combat boots. 49 degrees Celsius/120 degrees Fahrenheit ambient with 90 plus percent humidity with 60 degrees Celsius/140 degrees Fahrenheit on the tarmac and never saw any delamination.
Pardon my language, but no ####?!? Is there a brand name?Quote:
Originally Posted by GI Zhou
Thomas Fessy, the intrepid BBC World Service (French) reporter, once again gets to places few do, even if with the French Foreign Legion. A short film clip on patrolling near the Libya-Niger border in the "grey zone" and accompanying longer text:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-31939287
All part of France's 3k strong regional Operation Barkhane, which started in August last year (previous posts in the Mali thread).
He concludes:Quote:
The former colonial power, France, today stands as the Saharan policeman and has made it its mission to break the shifting allegiances between extremist groups. But with Boko Haram to the south and an expanding Islamic State to the north, the regional outlook is not too promising.
The last French outpost has some history:http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...896_niger4.jpgQuote:
This advanced base is taking shape right next to an old fort that the French army built out of dry mud in 1931 to defend themselves against the Italians, first, and then the British.
A short, twelve minute video clip from France-24:Link:http://www.france24.com/en/20150828-...-sahel-desert?Quote:
We take you inside "Operation Barkhane", France's anti-terrorist operation in Africa’s Sahel and Sahara. FRANCE 24's reporters take you to crossroads in the African desert where the trafficking of drugs, people and contraband meets Islamist terrorism.
An even shorter France24 report from Mali, 5 mins; this accompanying a small French patrol near the Niger border, following up a clue and searching a shepherds camp. Shepherds who after hours turn out to have Thuriya satphones, abundant ID cards and two AK47's. Two men are detained and an Apache helicopter appears in view; IIRC the Dutch deploy them to support the UN mission.
The men are from a the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regmt (Foreign Legion) and the 21st Marine Infantry Regmt.
Link:http://medias.france24.com/en/vod/20...46-Live_CS.mp4
Hat tip to WoTR for this article:http://warontherocks.com/2015/10/fro...erventionism/?
A short RAND commentary, post-Paris murders:http://www.rand.org/blog/2015/11/the...y-of-war.html?
Two passages for economy of effort:Quote:
What makes the French way of war distinct from, say, the U.S. way of war has to do with scarcity. The French military is highly conscious of its small size and lack of resources. This translates into several distinctive features of French military operations. One is an insistence on modest objectives, on limiting strictly the aims of a military invention in line with a modest assessment of what the military can accomplish. The French thus aim low and strive to achieve the minimal required. Whenever possible, they try to limit the use of the military to missions for which militaries really can be of use. Meaning, militaries are good at violence; if violence is what is required, then send in the military. Otherwise, not. The French military abhors mission creep and want no part in things such as 'nation building.'
They strive for sufficiency and hope to achieve limited goals through the application of the smallest possible measure of force, what they refer to as “juste mésure,” i.e. just enough to get the job done, and no more. This requires knowing how much is enough, not to mention accepting risk that Americans would prefer not to run and largely do not have to.
Quote:
Former U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno elaborated a vision for the Service’s future that left many questions unanswered. Specifically, he called for the Army to be more expeditionary as well as more scalable, tailorable, and regionally aligned. General Odierno’s successor and the current Army Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, similarly has spoken of the need for the Army to be “agile,” “adaptive,” and “expeditionary,” and to have an “expeditionary mindset.”1 Lieutenant General Gustave Perna, writing in the March–April 2016 issue of Army Sustainment, has also evoked the imperative of having an “expeditionary Army.”2 What, however, do these terms mean? What would it take for the Army to realize the generals’ vision, and what, if any, are the associated risks?
A recently published RAND study of French army operations in Mali in 2013 noted that in many ways, France’s army epitomizes the characteristics General Odierno and General Milley have highlighted. It is a living example of a technologically sophisticated force that checks all of the generals’ boxes; it does well precisely the things the generals call on the U.S. Army to do. Studying how the French army has organized itself and operates provides insight into what their ideals might mean in concrete terms for the U.S. Army and the associated benefits—but also the implied compromises and risks U.S. planners need to consider.
What It Means to Be Expeditionary: A Look at the French Army in Africa
By Michael Shurkin | Joint Force Quarterly 82 | July 01, 2016
http://ndupress.ndu.edu/JFQ/Joint-Fo...rmy-in-africa/
Adam G & readers,
There is a closed thread New boots, Chinooks please: French lessons for the US Army, which has a link to the cited RAND report and a number of posts by members:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=21323
Good catch the new article.
Tactical Surprise in Small Wars: Lessons from French Wars in Afghanistan and Mali
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
I don't think this has been posted before. It is a hour long official French military video of Operation Serval:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO3iXNtLkug
Curiously a Belgian military medical contribution is referred to, but when a RAF C-17 Globemaster is shown being unloaded, not a word. Ah well.;)
It has taken awhile and the report is subject to official confirmation (not that it was a story given by officials of course):Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018...paign-against/Quote:
Britain will send military helicopters to join a French campaign against Islamist extremists in Africa as London and Paris move to deepen cross-Channel defence ties, the Prime Minister is expected to announce later this week. RAF Chinooks have been offered to transport French troops in discussions...
There was a stand alone thread New boots, Chinooks please: French lessons for the US Army, which started in 2014 after Operation Serval in Mali and it has 34k views. It has now been merged into this thread.
Update: officially announced it will be three Chinooks.