Grand Corps of the French State Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), se ...

French Armed Forces The French Armed Forces (, ) are the military forces of France. They consist of four military branches – the Army, the Navy, the Air and Space Force, and the National Gendarmerie. The National Guard serves as the French Armed Forces' milita ...

equipment Equipment most commonly refers to a set of tool A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by ...

Aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astron ...

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

Institut supérieur de l'aéronautique et de l'espace The Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (, ISAE-SUPAERO; ) is a French ''grande école'' of engineering, founded in 1909. It is the world's first dedicated institute of aerospace engineering. ISAE-SUPAERO is part of University ...

ENSTA Paris The ENSTA Paris, officially École nationale supérieure de techniques avancées (; ), is a French graduate school of engineering (''école d'ingénieurs''). Founded in 1741, it is the oldest ''grande école'' in France. It is located in Palaisea ...

Direction générale de l'armement The Direction générale de l'armement (, , abbr. DGA), established in 1961, is the French Government defence procurement and technology agency, responsible within the Ministry of Armed Forces for project management, development, and purchase of ...

General Directorate for Armament A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED Online. Mar ...

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

OCCAR The Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (French: ''Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'ARmement''; OCCAR) is a European intergovernmental organisation that facilitates and manages collaborative armament programmes throu ...

CNES CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...

ESA The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European ...

EADS Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate defence and space and helicopter divisions. Airbus has long been th ...

Safran Safran S.A. () is a French Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace, defence industry, defence and computer security, security corporation headquartered in Paris. It designs, develops and manufactures both commercial and military airc ...

Thales Group Thales S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

MBDA MBDA is a European multinational corporation specialized in the design, development and manufacturing of Missile, missiles and related systems.DCNS...).

Prehistory of the Corps de l'armement

The Corps of Armament was created in 1968 as a fusion of previous Corps of military engineers recruiting at Ecole polytechnique. * Corps of Aeronautics engineers (corps des ingénieurs de l'air - or de l'aéronautique) * Corps of

naval engineer A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations ...

s (corps du génie maritime) * Corps of Powders and Explosives engineers (corps des ingénieurs des poudres et explosifs) * Corps of Military Telecom engineers (corps des ingénieurs des télécom militaires) * Corps of Armament Fabrications engineers (corps des ingénieurs des fabrications d'armement) In 1743, the "Ecole des constructeurs de vaisseaux royaux" was created to train Naval engineers. The school is known today as

ENSTA ParisTech The ENSTA Paris, officially École nationale supérieure de techniques avancées (; ), is a French graduate school of engineering (''école d'ingénieurs''). Founded in 1741, it is the oldest ''grande école'' in France. It is located in Palaisea ...

.

Corps of Armament and high-tech Colbertism

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, Ariane,...), can be compared with the role of the

Corps des télécommunications The Corps des télécommunications (Corps of Telecommunications) was a French Technical " grand corps de l'Etat". It is formed of the State Engineers of the Telecommunications. It is interministerial (not attached to any specific Ministry or Depar ...

in the development of the French telecom industry (telephone, Minitel,...), the role of the

Corps des mines The () is the foremost technical Grand Corps of the French State (). It is composed of the state industrial engineers. The Corps is attached to the French Ministry of Economy and Finance. Its purpose is to entice French students in mathematic ...

, or the

Corps des ponts Ponts may refer to: *Ponts, Lleida, a municipality in the province of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. *Ponts, Manche, a commune in the Manche department in the Lower Normandy region in France. *Ponts-et-Marais Ponts-et-Marais () is a commune in the Sei ...

with their respective Grands Projets (Nuclear industry, TGV,...). They illustrate

Colbertism Colbertism ( French: ''Colbertisme'') is an economic and political doctrine of the 17th century, created by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the Controller-General of Finances under Louis XIV of France. Colbertism is a variant of mercantilism that is some ...

, a French version of

mercantilism Mercantilism is a economic nationalism, nationalist economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports of an economy. It seeks to maximize the accumulation of resources within the country and use those resources ...

.

Colbertism Colbertism ( French: ''Colbertisme'') is an economic and political doctrine of the 17th century, created by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the Controller-General of Finances under Louis XIV of France. Colbertism is a variant of mercantilism that is some ...

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 High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

- Economics of the Grand Projet" (1995).Le Colbertisme high tech : Economie des Télécom et du Grand Projet Hachette, Pluriel, 1992
/ref>

High tech Colbertism High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

can be characterized by a prevalent role played in France by the Administration and the Grand Corps. A typical Colbertist mechanism is the "

pantouflage The term pantouflage refers to a practice by which high-level French civil servants, usually former students of the École Polytechnique or the École nationale d'administration, obtain work in private enterprise. In use, the term can be applied t ...

" where top civil servants become Heads of French public companies. The word "

pantouflage The term pantouflage refers to a practice by which high-level French civil servants, usually former students of the École Polytechnique or the École nationale d'administration, obtain work in private enterprise. In use, the term can be applied t ...

" 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 In politics, a revolving door can refer to two distinct phenomena. Primarily, it denotes a situation wherein personnel move between roles as legislators or regulators in the public sector, and as employees or lobbyists of industries (affected ...

" ("fallen from the sky").

Notable members of the Corps de l'armement

Heads of the
Direction générale de l'armement The Direction générale de l'armement (, , abbr. DGA), established in 1961, is the French Government defence procurement and technology agency, responsible within the Ministry of Armed Forces for project management, development, and purchase of ...

* Henri Martre, délégué général pour l'armement (1977-1983), CEO

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale () was a major French state-owned aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and arms industry, defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as () through the merger of three established state-owned companies: Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation ...

(1983-1992). *

Yves Sillard Yves Sillard (January 5, 1936 – April 12, 2023) was a French aerospace engineer and high-ranking public servant who played a major role in the development of the French space program (Ariane). He headed the CNES, IFREMER, and the Délégation g� ...

, Director general of

CNES CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...

(1976-1982), CEO

IFREMER The or Ifremer is an oceanographic institution in Brest, France. A state-run and funded scientific organization, it is France’s national integrated marine science research institute. Scope of works Ifremer focuses its research activities in ...

(1982-1989), délégué général pour l'armement (1989-1993).

Heads of other public bodies

* Frédéric van Roekeghem, director of the French national health insurance fund. * Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, former

directeur général de l'aviation civile The Directorate General for Civil Aviation (, DGAC) is the France, French civil aviation authority. Its headquarters are in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, 15th arrondissement of Paris, 50 Henry-Farman. It is subordinate to the Ministry of Eco ...

and Directeur général d'

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

. * Alain Bugat, headed the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (2003-2009). * Guillaume Poupard, CEO of the French Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d'information, National Cybersecurity Agency.

Top industrialists

* Jean-Paul Herteman, CEO

Safran Safran S.A. () is a French Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace, defence industry, defence and computer security, security corporation headquartered in Paris. It designs, develops and manufactures both commercial and military airc ...

, Chairman of GIFAS, Vice Chairman of Conseil général de l'armement. * Marwan Lahoud, Head of

EADS Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate defence and space and helicopter divisions. Airbus has long been th ...

France, former CEO of

MBDA MBDA is a European multinational corporation specialized in the design, development and manufacturing of Missile, missiles and related systems.Henri Martre, Délégué général pour l'armement (1977-1983), CEO

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale () was a major French state-owned aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and arms industry, defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as () through the merger of three established state-owned companies: Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation ...

(1983-1992). * Serge Tchuruk, president of Total S.A., Total, then Alcatel Lucent.

Aerospace engineers

* René Audran, Director of International Affairs at DGA, assassinated by Action directe in 1985. * Jean Bastien-Thiry, Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, famous for attempting to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle in 1962. * Roger Béteille, one of the founders of Airbus. * Jean-François Clervoy, astronaut. * François Hussenot, credited with the invention of one of the early forms of the flight data recorder. * Henri Ziegler, one of the founders of Airbus.

Naval, nuclear & telecom engineers

* Louis-Émile Bertin, naval engineer. * Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, physicist described as the father of thermodynamics. * Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières, fortification engineer and general.

Grades

* Engineer-General, Exceptional Class (IGCEA), relative rank as général d'armée * DGA-GCA

Engineer-General, Senior Class (IGHCA), relative rank as général de corps d'armée * DGA-GDI

Engineer-General, First Class (IG1A), relative rank as général de division * DGA-BRI

Engineer-General, Second Class (IG2A), relative rank as général de brigade * DGA-COL

Chief Engineer (with two years in the grade) (ICA), relative rank as Colonel * DGA-LCL

Chief Engineer Second Class (with less than two years in the grade) (ICA), relative rank as Lieutenant-colonel * DGA-CEN

Principal Engineers (IPA), relative rank as Major (rank), Major * DGA-CNE

Engineer (step 4 to 9) (IA), relative rank as Captain * DGA-LTN

Engineer (step 2 to 4) (IA), relative rank as First Lieutenant * DGA-SLT

Engineer (step 1) (IA), relative rank as Second Lieutenant

References

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