Loading AI tools
Military unit From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Corps de l'armement, or corps des ingénieurs de l'armement[1] is a Technical Grand Corps of the French State (grand corps de l'Etat),[2] aimed at providing the French Armed Forces with all appropriate equipment and supervising the French Aerospace & Defence industry.
| Corps de l'armement | |
|---|---|
 Hat of an Engineer-General, First Class. | |
| Active | 1968-present |
| Country |  France |
| Branch | Aerospace & Defence |
| Type | Corps of military engineers |
| Role | Management of Aerospace & Defence Programmes, Research & Testing |
| Size | 2000 |
The corps members are the ingénieurs de l'armement, or ingénieurs du corps de l'armement, nicknamed "IA" in French. They are high level engineers and public servants with military status, originating for most of them (more than 2/3 by decree[3]) from Ecole polytechnique[4] and trained at Institut supérieur de l'aéronautique et de l'espace (ISAE) (formation SUPAERO), ENSTA Paris, or other French or international universities.
The Corps de l'armement's main employer (50%) is the Direction générale de l'armement (General Directorate for Armament).[5] The second half are employed in other bodies of the Ministry of Defence, in international Defence organizations (NATO, OCCAR,...), can be detached in French administrative bodies (CNES, CEA, ESA,...), or the French and European industry (EADS, Safran, Thales Group, MBDA, DCNS...).
The Corps of Armament was created in 1968 as a fusion of previous Corps of military engineers[6] recruiting at Ecole polytechnique.
In 1743, the "Ecole des constructeurs de vaisseaux royaux" was created to train Naval engineers. The school is known today as ENSTA ParisTech.
The role played by the Corps of Armament in the development of the French aerospace and defence industry, in particular with the logic of Grands Projets (Concorde, Airbus,[9] Ariane,...), can be compared with the role of the Corps des télécommunications in the development of the French telecom industry (telephone, Minitel,...), the role of the Corps des mines, or the Corps des ponts with their respective Grands Projets (Nuclear industry, TGV,...). They illustrate Colbertism, a French version of mercantilism.
Colbertism dates back to the 17th century, influenced at that time by the Chinese system. French high public servants are nicknamed "mandarins", referring to their Chinese counterparts.
The French economist Elie Cohen described the effects of French Colbertism in the field of High tech in a book entitled "High tech Colbertism - Economics of the Grand Projet" (1995).[10]
High tech Colbertism can be characterized by a prevalent role played in France by the Administration and the Grand Corps. A typical Colbertist mechanism is the "pantouflage" where top civil servants become Heads of French public companies. The word "pantouflage" cannot be directly translated in English nor in any Western language but can be translated in Japanese where a comparable mechanism exists. The Japanese word is "amakudari" ("fallen from the sky").
Engineer-General, Exceptional Class (IGCEA), relative rank as général d'armée
Engineer-General, Senior Class (IGHCA), relative rank as général de corps d'armée
Engineer-General, First Class (IG1A), relative rank as général de division
Engineer-General, Second Class (IG2A), relative rank as général de brigade
Chief Engineer (with two years in the grade) (ICA), relative rank as Colonel
Chief Engineer Second Class (with less than two years in the grade) (ICA), relative rank as Lieutenant-colonel
Principal Engineers (IPA), relative rank as Major
Engineer (step 4 to 9) (IA), relative rank as Captain
Engineer (step 2 to 4) (IA), relative rank as First Lieutenant
Engineer (step 1) (IA), relative rank as Second LieutenantSeamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
