The mission: liberate the village of Jeoffrécourt. In Sissonne, in the Aisne, French soldiers face off aboard tanks in an urban environment and must retake a fictional town from an equally imaginary enemy.
They act within the framework of an exercise whose objective is to train soldiers in the characteristics of a high intensity war, these conflicts that mobilize all the operational forces.
This type of confrontation seems to be resurfacing in Europe with the war in Ukraine since February. But in reality, “since the Donbass war”, which began in 2014, and “the Nagorno-Karabakh war”, which lasted six weeks in 2020, “Western nations are preparing to experience tougher conflicts after decades of asymmetric fighting”. , point. an informative report of the National Assembly of February 2022.
A large-scale military exercise in 2023
In this context, the French army is preparing an exercise of an unprecedented scale in the first half of 2023, which will mobilize up to 12,000 soldiers in the territory for several months in a scenario of major conflict against a State. This is the “Orion” exercise: it should involve all components of the armies (land, sea, air, space) in all material and immaterial fields (cybernetic, information, etc.).
“In 2017, the (French) Strategic Review described the arrival of the prospect of a major conflict and the need to prepare for it. We must adapt our operational readiness and our employment doctrine” after more than two decades of asymmetric warfare against the The jihadists, General Yves Metayer, commander of the force employment division in the general staff of the armies, explained in November during a presentation conference on Orion.
Fake mines and tanks.
On the program therefore for the soldiers who train in the Aisne: false mines to be deactivated and fire tanks. They learn to use these vehicles in an urban warfare context, where constant changes of position are essential.
“The survivability of a tank is certainly its armor, but also its mobility,” Colonel Guillaume, corps commander of the 12th cuirassier regiment, told BFMTV.
This regiment specializes in armor and high intensity combat. The objective of this training is to increase the strength of the armies in the face of risks. This process is against the ropes of the French army, according to the information report of the National Assembly of 2022.
The National Defense and Armed Forces Committee points out that “despite the reduction in formats and the effects of budgetary restrictions”, which lead, for example, to a reduction in the Air Force fleet, “France has taken care to conserve all its capabilities with a view to a possible increase in power”.
Source: BFM TV
