We Americans are accustomed to finding, under newspaper headlines
announcing the latest intervention in Africa, tales of French derring-do-perhaps
the story of a parachute company of the Foreign Legion, or of French Marines,
accompanied by photos of bronzed men with jauntily canted berets that offer
testimony of combat. Behind such famous regiments of the French Army is a
logistics system that is well organized to support overseas deployments.
While the French Army organizes support in a different way than the U.S.
Army does, it has all the necessary components of a modern logistics
system.
Logistics Branches and Services
Logistics in the French Army is performed by several joint-level service support organizations (known in French as "services"), by two logistics branches (transportation and ordnance), and by several Army-level services. The French distinction between a "branch" and a "service" is both historical and functional. A branch is a corporate body with a functional specialty, a professional code, a recognizable head, a flag, and a branch school, such as armor, aviation, and transportation. A service is a combat service support organization that includes the majority of these elements. However, it was created recently, has differing regulations for promotion and career longevity in the Army, and lacks a flag to symbolize its status. Implicit in the difference is prestige, which naturally accrues to the older, more tradition-rich branches. As in the U.S. Army, a number of officers and noncommissioned officers (NCO's) of other Army branches hold a specialty in one of the logistics branches and services and alternate assignments in a logistics branch or service with assignments in their basic branch.
Some logistics functions are assigned to branches of the Army, and others are performed at the joint level. But the core of the French Army logistics system is the Transportation Corps, which furnishes the structure into which the other parts of the system fit. The Transportation Corps exercises responsibility for road movements, over-the-shore cargo handling, and traffic control in division and corps rear areas. With its branch school at Tours, in the heart of the Loire River Valley, the Transportation Corps, or L'Arme du Train, serves as the gig line for a number of branches and services. Each of these arms and services provides expertise in its own domain, but they all unite in command and support regiments under the banner of the transporters to provide support to the forces. The Transportation School trains officers and NCO's in general logistics, transportation, traffic control, and deployment functions. The Transportation School also offers a course that prepares all French (and some Allied) logisticians for deployment on NATO or United Nations operations.
The Ordnance Corps recently increased its stature by being named a branch. Its school is located in the city of Bourges, in the center of France, where it trains officers and NCO's in a variety of maintenance specialties and offers an array of ground and aviation maintenance special courses. The branch provides organizational, direct, and general support maintenance assets to logistics battalions.
The Commissariat is a service rather than a branch. It is concerned with all planning and execution issues affecting the troops, including pay, rations, clothing and individual equipment, and construction and barrier materials; it functions something like a combination of the U.S. Army's Quartermaster, Finance, and Adjutant General's Corps. The Commissariat operates from two basic organizations: the Commissariat Resupply Establishment, which serves as the warehouse and supply organization, and the 1st Commissariat-Logistics Group, stationed at Bretigny-sur-Orge. This latter unit was created in 1994 to bring together in a single military organization these diverse support functions. Its 100 personnel are mostly active-duty military who provide soldier support to combat and support units deployed on operations overseas. Commissariat officers and NCO's can be found in all organizations, down to the battalion S4.
The Corps of Engineers is divided into two separate organizations. One is a branch that is not a component of the logistics system. The other is the Engineer Service, which is equivalent to the U.S. Army's facilities engineers; they are responsible for maintaining the infrastructure of the French Army. These engineers are integrated with the logistics staff on military bases.
In addition to these logistics components of the Army, several
joint-level organizations complete the range of assets that support the force.
The Defense Fuels Service (Service Essences des Armées) procures,
stores, and provides all fuels for the French defense establishment, dispensing
340 million gallons of fuel per year in the Armed Forces. This organization
serves as a direct interface between the French defense establishment and
the petroleum industry. The Defense Health Service (Service de Santé)
trains and provides cadre and supplies all health needs for the Army, Navy,
and Air Force, including doctors and medics. The Defense Postal Service also
operates in the joint arena and plugs into the Army through the Commissariat.
The other services are represented in Army tactical logistics units or in
special Army units, such as the recently created 1st Medical Regiment.
Logistics Units
Currently, all logistics assets of the French Army are managed by the 1st Logistics Command, or 1st COMLOG, located in Montigny-les-Metz. This organization has evolved from Operations Base 901, which served as the logistics base for the 1st French Army in 1944-1945. At its last restructuring in 1972, its primary mission became providing logistics support for a deployed mechanized corps. But the 1st COMLOG has evolved further since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and now it provides logistics support for all forces operating overseas, including the substantial French contingent in Bosnia.
A number of operational units serve as executive agents for the 1st COMLOG. One of its subordinate staffs, the Operational Land Transit Center, manages highway and rail movements of personnel and materiel to points of embarkation. It also ensures effective deployment and redeployment overseas and coordinates for both fuel and medical support. Several units assigned to the 1st COMLOG serve as transshipment nodes: The 1st Air Delivery Regiment and the 503d and 515th Transportation Regiments (located respectively at La Rochelle and La Braconne) support movement in all situations.
The primary logistics organization in the French Army is the divisional command and support regiment (le régiment de commandement et de soutien, or RCS), which operates the division base. All RCS's belong to the Transportation Corps and are commanded by Transportation Corps officers. While each division's support regiment differs according to the requirements of the division, they all follow the general outline of the 2d RCS, which supports the 2d Armored Division.
With a wartime strength of 2,500 personnel, the 2d RCS is the
largest regiment in that division. The "2," as it is affectionately known,
provides resupply, maintenance, and medical support for the 12,000-soldier
division. Its two transportation companies (one of which is a reserve unit)
are capable of providing 1,500 metric tons of munitions, 400 tons of fuel,
and 17 tons of general supplies per day. Maintenance services are provided
by three direct-support companies (one of which is from the reserve). The
regiment also includes four reserve component medical platoons, two for
evacuation of wounded from the battlefield and two for triage and further
evacuation to rear-area hospitals. The divisional signal company, which furnishes
command and control assets to the division headquarters, is assigned to the
RCS. Completing the assets of the logistics regiment is the traffic control
company, which manages movement of the division's 3,000 vehicles throughout
the division area.
Future of French Logistics
The French Army currently is undergoing a series of revolutionary changes. Simultaneously, it is ending the draft, downsizing from an active-duty strength of 250,000 to 170,000, revamping its higher command structures, and introducing modern technology and equipment that will require the rewriting of its doctrine. French Army headquarters already has outlined new organizational structures, including modular brigades of all existing branches. The logistics component will include three support regiments, five transportation and traffic control regiments, four maintenance groups, and two medical regiments; they will be organized in the two brigades of the future Logistics Command (CFLT), which will replace the 1st COMLOG. This command will fall directly under French Army headquarters but will work closely with the future Forces Command (CFAT) and the joint staff as necessary. These changes were decreed in 1996 and will be completed in 2002.
While the logistics community has yet to present the road map to meet their particular challenges of the next few years, the size of the task is apparent to them. A recent thought paper outlines some of the possibilities. [This paper, by Colonel Philippe Mounier, executive officer of the 1st COMLOG, does not represent official French policy.] The new command will be responsible both for filling domestic logistics requirements and supporting two simultaneous operational deployments, of 30,000 and 5,000 troops. These requirements imply participation of the Army logistics community as the land component of Defense logistics functions, including both movement control and coordination of ground transportation for all services. Likewise, the mission will include conducting logistics studies, training leader cadres, assisting in the training of combat forces in logistics tasks, organizing resources, providing the logistics component of expeditionary forces, and executing logistics support.
The logistics brigades will serve as intermediate command structures for the 15 specialized regiments. In peacetime, the brigades would be responsible for administration, training, and preparation for deployment. According to Colonel Mounier, their operational functions should consist of coordinating and executing logistics portions of deployments. Each brigade should be capable of furnishing a theater-level command post, the command post for the division logistics command, and the command post for the logistics task force of a second, 5,000-man deployment. As the two brigades each contain units of all specialties, they should be both multifunctional and interchangeable.
The division logistics command should be created in a modular fashion; that is to say, it should be organized from specialized logistics regiments and companies specifically to support the force being projected. Thus streamlined, the French Army would realize savings in both infrastructure and deployment costs.
An obvious reservation about such a system is that it risks an initial period of awkwardness as the components learn to work together. However, the French Army is smaller than ours; its officers come from the same slice of society, attend the same schools, participate in the same deployments, and know each other well. Their common, unspoken understanding should compensate for many of the problems typical of ad hoc organizations.
These proposals will have to take into account a number of problems-
The French Army logistics system supports a modern, well-equipped
force that is undergoing enormous changes as the French prepare for the
challenges of the 21st century. French logisticians thus are confronted with
many of the same issues as their American counterparts. Their example may
well serve as a guide to us as we prepare for the future.
ALOG
Lieutenant Colonel John Moncure, USA (Ret.), teaches history at Camden Military Academy, Camden, South Carolina. At the time he wrote this article, he was the U.S. Army liaison officer at the French Cavalry School. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and the Army Command and General Staff College and holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University.
The author wishes to thank Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Bangham, of the British Army, and Captain Luc Perennou, the Transportation Corps instructor at the French Cavalry School, for their assistance in writing this article.