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Letter TO THE CONTACT N°35
Operations Chammal and Sentinel, Voluntary Military Service, HK 416 F replaces FAMAS
On November 4, we lost one of our brothers-in-arms, Warrant Officer Fabien JACQ, fatally injured by an improvised explosive device in Mali.
A few days later, we had three wounded in a violent skirmish. French blood runs on the Malian sand. These are not just news stories: the Army is waging war against Islamist terrorism over there so that the French can live in peace here.
From the Levant too, your soldiers are protecting you. After participating in the formation of the famous Iraqi Golden Division, the French now support its commitment in Mosul with Caesar guns.
In Metropolitan France, finally, the men and women you met this summer on the beaches and who you now see on patrol throughout the country are committed to your protection, even if it means spending two thirds of the year away from their families. Others are educating youth through the Voluntary Military Service (VMS) or recruiting and training the 11,000 additional soldiers who will have joined the Land Task Force (LTTF) by the end of the year.
In order to last despite this "omnidirectional" over-employment, the Army must now give its new model its full power. This is the challenge for 2017, which will see the preparation of the next military programming law. Above all, this implies strengthening the central place of the command in our army.
This is why we have reissued the historic Blue Book on the exercise of command, now available from Economica Editions under the title Commandement et Fraternité (Command and Fraternity). Without command there is no cohesion, no course and no action! This then requires action in three directions
: - finalising the organisation with "Au Contact", 100% in place by the summer of 2017;
- accelerating the equipping of the land forces, in particular with the arrival of Scorpio and the replacement of FAMAS by the HK416. Equipment must now catch up with manpower;
- and lastly, give our model a forward-looking orientation.
This last point is the subject of a forward-looking document that we have produced and published under the name of Future Land Action (ATF), a document detailed in the following pages.
The Army constitutes a major part of our life insurance; this implies a significant defence effort. Giving up this life insurance is generally irresponsible; to do so in the present state of the world would be suicidal.
Enjoy your reading !
: - finalising the organisation with "Au Contact", 100% in place by the summer of 2017;
- accelerating the equipping of the land forces, in particular with the arrival of Scorpio and the replacement of FAMAS by the HK416. Equipment must now catch up with manpower;
- and lastly, give our model a forward-looking orientation.
This last point is the subject of a forward-looking document that we have produced and published under the name of Future Land Action (ATF), a document detailed in the following pages.