Today, drones and Artificial Intelligence are making their mark in war and security. These fields, like all other human activities, are no longer immune to robotisation which, for armies, certainly saves soldiers' lives by avoiding direct confrontation but also makes them more effective, especially when the number of troops deployed is strictly limited.

The result is a morality of the rich and the intellectuals reserved for an elite of humanity that puts the other at a distance, an illusory vision of a world that is nothing but an illusion. As the philosopher Nassim Nicholas TALEB wrote: "In fact, academics and theorists want to teach birds to fly".

Doesn't the arrival of drones on the battlefield transform the soldier into a remote operator partially relieved of responsibility? This is what Lt-Gen (2S) Henri PONCET is trying to answer.

When Oscar PISTORIUS, amputated below the knees at the age of 11 months, became an elite athlete, he wanted to participate in the Olympic Games in BEIJING in the category "Athletics".When Oscar PISTORIUS, who had been amputated below the knees at the age of 11 months and became a top-level athlete, wished to compete in the Beijing Olympic Games in the able-bodied category, the International Athletics Federation did not allow him to do so because it considered that his prostheses gave him a significant advantage over his competitors. However, in 2008, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in his favour, despite a study that objectified this advantage.

There is a specifically military ethic on which the soldier's commitment to combat is based; it is by nature intended to apply in wartime. It results from the compelling operational need to control the use of armed force by the warrior who has been made the holder.

And then there is a peacetime ethic, which the soldier wants to believe must prefigure the wartime ethic, if only because one must prepare for combat, be trained, have thought about it, before committing oneself to action. The military therefore has a natural tendency to put in place in peacetime, and in his organic tasks, the behaviour, rules and modes of relationship that he will need in order, one day if need be, to maintain the required ethical level in the act of war...

French armies, especially the Army, are probably among the best armies in the world in terms of rusticity. They must remain so, but this requires a heavy responsibility on the part of the command.

We do not have the right to "play" with these lives through risky decisions. It is therefore essential before taking action to have thought about how far not to go too far. This is what Generals Hubert BODIN and Bruno DARY are inviting us to do when they ask us about the risks of consenting to training and operations respectively.

Article 1 of the General Statute of Military Personnel is particularly clear:

"The Army of the Republic is at the service of the Nation. Its mission is to prepare and ensure by force of arms the defence of the fatherland and the higher interests of the Nation. The military state requires in all circumstances a spirit of sacrifice, which may go as far as the supreme sacrifice, discipline, availability, loyalty and neutrality. »

Lebanon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Central African Republic, Mali, Afghanistan, Former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Kosovo, Libya, Rwanda, Republic of the Congo, asymmetric wars, asymmetrical wars, asymmetryFor more than 50 years, modern conflict has made the context of military commitments and the use of armed force ever more complex.

When discussing the subject of " ethics" with a member of the military , several values immediately come to mind:discipline, a sense of duty, the sacredness of the mission, availability, the spirit of sacrifice... Among these values, one holds a very special place: loyalty to the leader.

In this contribution, the term "Chief" will refer to the commander of a unit, from corporal to large unit commander (more at the tactical level), who motivates and leads his men into combat. The term "Command" will be reserved for all senior officials who prepare forces for engagement, advise policy makers, or design operations at the operational level.

Sn a theatre of operations, the force commander is therefore divided between these two positions. In the French armies, the "Command" is made up of officers who have been placed in the position of "Chief" on numerous occasions throughout their careers, at different levels. But "Chief" or "Commander" are all "Soldiers".