Ministry of Defence (France)
| Headquarters | Hôtel de Brienne |
|---|---|
| Location |
|
Ministre de la défense | Jean-Yves Le Drian |
Budget | €40.7 Billion |
Staff | 63,696 civilian staff[1] |
| Website | www.defense.gouv.fr |
The Ministry of Defence (French: Ministère de la Défense) is the French department in charge of managing the French Armed Forces inside and outside French soil. It is an active member of NATO and European Defence Community. The actual Minister is Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Organization
Minister of Defence
The head of the department is the Minister of Defence. He reports directly to the President of the Republic, the Commander-in-Chief of the French Armed Forces.
His mission is to organize and manage the country Defense Policy in liaison with other departments. He is also in charge of mobilizing troops and managing the military infrastructure. He is responsible of the French Armed forces security to the Parliament.[2]
Chief of Defence Staff
The Chief of Defence Staff reports directly to the Minister. He is in charge of conducting operations, troops training, troops inspection, Programming the forces future, gathering and analyzing Intelligence, He is also in charge of maintaining relationships with other countries.
The Chief of Defence Staff was held by French Navy Admiral Édouard Guillaud until February 2014[3] and is currently headed by French Army General Pierre de Villiers.
SGA
The General Secretary for Administration is in charge of the general administration of the Department. He assists the Minister for:
- Elaborating Budget
- Legal advice
- Human resources policy
- House resources
- Social Management
The position is held by Jean-Paul Bodin.[4]
DGA
The Direction Générale de l'Armement is the Research and development service of the Department. It is in charge of furnishing equipment to all branches of the Armed Forces and creating the future equipment of the armies. The service manages more than 80 projects and commanded more than 7.5 billions of euros to the national Industry in 2011.
Headquarters
The headquarters of the Ministry of Defence is located at the Hotel de Brienne, in the 14th Arrondissement of Paris but all services have beend moved to a new headquarter.
On 5 November 2015, French president François Hollande inaugurated The new French Defence Ministry headquarters at Balard Site, nicknamed Hexagone Balard or "Balardgon" in reference to its American counterpart The Pentagon.
Hexagone Balard concentrates all componments of the French armed forces, and houses the Chief of staff of the Army, Chief of staff of the Navy, Chief of staff of the Air Force, the Direction générale de l'armement, the General secretary for the administration and the Chief of the Defence Staff, as well as the office of the French minister of Defence himself. It is a 250 000 square metres (2690978 Sq Ft) building on a 39.5 acre (16.5 hectars) ground.
Hexagone Balard is the most secured building in continental Europe. Its nickname "Hexagon" stems both from a reference to The Pentagon, but also from the shape of the central plaza of the building.
Notes and references
- ↑ "Key defence figures 2014" (PDF) (in French). Defense.gouv.fr. (HTML Version)
- ↑ "Le rôle du ministère de la défense" (in French). Ministère de la Défense. 2014-02-24. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
- ↑ "Fonction" (in French). Ministère de la Défense. 01/04/2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - ↑ "Ses missions" (in French). Ministère de la Défense. 2014-04-04. Retrieved 27 September 2014.