Conflicts of today and tomorrow, tanks of the future, equipment, human resources, General Pierre Schill, Chief of the Army Staff, has committed to answering all these questions.
BFM Business: What type of conflicts is the Army preparing for?
General Pierre Schill: We are a complete army. France maintains this ambition and that is why we are preparing for all types of conflicts. The most difficult, very specifically today, would be the conflicts that could be imagined within the framework of the collective defense of the European continent.
These are the ones that technically, at a military and operational level, would need the most. Following the saying “he who can do the most”, these types of conflicts are a priority, but in such a way that we can also get involved in other types of conflicts in other regions of the world.
The Army has addressed a major technological shift, particularly with the Scorpion system armored vehicles. How do you imagine the tank of the future?
First I imagine it as a connected tank. The reality of modern combat as we do with Scorpion systems is connectivity. It is about being able to connect teams, exchange, collect and analyze data in command positions to be able to decide faster than the adversary. In this way, we can break through the fog of war, that is, have a form of battlefield transparency. And, if possible, decide and act.
Therefore, the tank of the future will be connected to a combat cloud. This tank will also benefit from robotics. Aerial robotics is already booming, as we see in various conflicts. Ground robotics presents even greater technological challenges given the harshness of the terrain. That is why the connected car for “everyone” is not yet fully on the agenda.
The tank itself will be a compromise between numerous imperatives: firepower, protection, mobility and invisibility that will have to be established. But this is not necessarily what will be the distinctive element of this tank of the future.
Do we often oppose mass and coherence? Is it legitimate to know that you are looking to improve through both recruiting and equipment?
There are two answers. The first is the question of the articulation between coherence and mass. I don’t think we should oppose the two. It is a question of distribution over time.
The solution we propose today is consistency over mass over time.
And about the workforce?
The question of consistency and dough is the same. You have to have both, but if you can’t, you have to prioritize consistency. What we have must be immediately usable and effective. As far as human resources are concerned, this means that in today’s France and taking into account the labor market, our geopolitical ambition and the external environment, an age group of 800,000 young people can be mobilized for its army, its navy, Its air force, its uniformed bodies such as the gendarmerie or the police, are not infinitely expandable.
However, the reservation issue allows citizens who do not want to be professional soldiers, but who are or will be willing to defend their country. But beyond the effectiveness they bring to our armies, there is a link with society, an additional diffusion of the spirit of defense. This is a space that we will exploit in the coming years.
Source: BFM TV
