The French air defence organisation is integrated in the military Armée de l’Air (ALA), the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (, , ) is the air force, air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the ("Aeronautical Service"), a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the Fr ...

. The defence of the French national airspace has always been based on 2 main aspects: * the peacetime security of the French airspace. This assignment is executed according to the fixed conditions of the French prime minister collaborating with the ministers of transport, foreign affairs, industrial, postal and communication services, interior management and colonial management. * the national military air defence consisting of all defensive and counteroffensive measures against eventual aggressors. In peacetime, the air defence and air operations command develops and evaluates all possible classic assets of air operations in all kinds of theatres. In times of crisis or at war, the air defence and air operations command is responsible for all offensive and defensive air operations. The ''Commandement de la défense aérienne et des opérations aériennes'' (CDAOA) is the air defence and air operations command, and has the following primary missions: * to decelerate and to evaluate any possible threats to the country by controlling the French and surrounding airspace by radar * to present an actual airpicture on a 24/7 basis to all civilian and military authorities on which strategic decisions may be made * to secure the airsuperiority in the national airspace at all times * to prevent or to stop the use of the national airspace by any kind of aggressor * to alert all civilian and military authorities in case of surprise air attacks CDAOA secondary, peacetime, missions are: * to command and control all military air traffic in cooperation with the civilian air traffic under the authority of the minister of transport * to command and control all search and rescue operations in case of civilian or military air accidents In case of need the main CDAOA functions will always be guaranteed on all theatres by the activation of air, ground or sea mobile detection units of all French armed forces. These units may be deployed at any time to support the fixed operational systems.

System elements

*STRIDA (''Système de Traitement et de Représentation des Informations de Défense Aérienne'', lit. "System for processing and representing air defence information") is the radar itself. They equip the CDAOA, the CCOA, the CDC's and the UDA *

PALMIER A palmier (, from French, short for ''feuille de palmier'' 'palm tree leaf'), pig's ear, palm heart, or elephant ear is a French pastry in a palm leaf shape or a butterfly shape, sometimes called ''palm leaves'', ''cœur de France'', ''French ...

. are 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional radars in the 23 cm wavelength. They feed information to the CDCs, which exchange their radar inputs from the other CDC's, from foreign allied

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 ...

CRC's and from the E-3F and E-2C planes to complete the situation awareness. *VISU- IV/ -V are computerised workspaces staffed and operated by military controllers that can be operated in control mode or surveillance mode. A senior controller is always in charge of supervising the operators. The VISU- IV/ -V equip the CDCs and UDA. *METEOR and ETEC are radio and datalink communication systems. They constitute the primary means of transmission, though telephone and radio transmissions may also be sent via other specific sources in the defence network, such as Socrate or MTBA, or even through the installations of

France Télécom Orange S.A. (; formerly , stylised as france telecom) is a French multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications corporation founded in 1988 and headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. ''Orange'' has been the corporation' ...

Air defence chain of command

The operational air defence

chain of command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. Military chain of command In a military context, the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders ...

consist of 3 main parts. *The Centre de Conduite des Opérations Aériennes (CCOA), the air operations command and control centre where the overall air picture is generated and evaluated, is responsible for all air operations and for the security of the French airspace. This military authority is directly under the French President. The CCOA, is located in an underground facility on

Taverny Air Base Taverny Air Base (formerly ''Base Aérienne 921 "Frères Mahé" de Taverny'') is located in the communities of Taverny and Bessancourt in the Val d'Oise département of France, twenty kilometers north of Paris. Until 2011 it was the headquarte ...

(''Base aérienne 921 ‘Frères Mahe’'') near the town of

Taverny Taverny () is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Tabernaciens''. History In 1806 the commune of Taverny merged with the neighboring commune of Saint-Leu, r ...

. In radiotraffic it uses the tactical call sign (tactical) “Veilleur’ *The Centres de Détection et de Contrôle (CDC), the control & reporting centres are placed in the commandstructure of the Commandement Air des Systèmes de Surveillance, d’Information et de Communications (CASSIC) and are the subordinating units to the CDAOA. There are 5 fully operational CDC's in the new ALA structure. These command & reporting centres are * ''CDC 05.901 Drachenbronn'' located on Drachenbronn Air Base (''Base aérienne 901 ‘Capitaine de Laubier) at the town of Birlenbach with the tactical “Riesling radar”. * ''CDC 05.942 Lyon/Mont Verdun'' located on Lyon - Mont Verdun Air Base (''Base aérienne 942 ‘Capitaine Robert’'') at the city of

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

with the tactical “Rambert radar”. * ''CDC 05.943 Nice/Mont Agel'' located on Nice Air Base (''Base aérienne 943 ‘Capitaine Auber’'') at the town of

Roquebrune-Cap Martin Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (; or ; ; ), simply Roquebrune until 1921, is a Communes of France, commune in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region, Southeastern France, betw ...

with the tactical “Rhodia radar”. * ''CDC 04.930 Mont-de-Marsan'' located on Mont-de-Marsan Air Base (''Base aérienne 118 ‘Colonel Rozanoff’'') north of

Mont-de-Marsan Mont-de-Marsan (; Gascon dialect, Occitan: ''Lo Mont de Marçan'') is a communes of France, commune and capital of the Landes (department), Landes Departments of France, department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Population Milit ...

city with the tactical “Marina radar”. * ''CDC 07.927 Cinq-Mars la Pile'' is an air detachment of Tours - Saint-Symphorien Air Base (''Base aérienne 705 ‘Commandants Tulasne’'') at

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

with the tactical “Raki radar”. The former CDC 05.902 located on airbase 902 at

Contrexéville Contrexéville () is a commune of north-eastern France, in the Vosges département. The mineral springs of Contrexéville have been known locally for many years, but became generally known only towards the end of the 18th century. The particul ...

and the former CDC located on air detachment 922 at

Doullens Doullens (; ; former ) is a commune in the Somme department, Hauts-de-France, France. Its inhabitants are called ''Doullennais'' and ''Doullennaises''. Geography Doullens is situated on the N25 road, in the northern part of the department, st ...

have been deactivated and transformed into radiocommunications and satellite control stations. Although their infrastructure is still present and conserved the radar stations are not operational anymore. *The Unité de détection aéroportée (UDA), the French airborne early warning (AWACS) unit located on airbase 702 ‘Cne Georges Madon’ near the town of

Avord Avord () is a commune in the Cher department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. It is east of Bourges, by the banks of the river Yèvre. The commune is home to Avord Air Base, the second largest French Air and Space Force base. P ...

with the unit tactical "Cyrano". This airborne early warning unit, has been created in 1989 on the Avord airbase and consists of ''36th Escadre de détection aéroportée'' (36 EDA), becoming operational in 1990 and equipped with 4 E-3F AWACS planes during 1990–1992. ''Escadron de détection aéroportée'' (EDA 01.036) ''Berry'' and ''EDA 02.036 Nivernais'' are the 2 operational E-3F squadrons ''Escadron de préparation des missions et simulation'' (ESMT 10.036) and ''Escadron de soutien technique spécialisé'' (ESTS 15.036), the mission supporting and the technical maintenance squadrons.

References

External links

Armee de l’air official website
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080304111023/http://pedagogie.ac-montpellier.fr/hist_geo/ressources/defense/cd_ihedn/D%C3%A9fense%20militaire/Arm%C3%A9e%20de%20l%27air/Commandement%20de%20la%20d%C3%A9fense%20a%C3%A9rienne%20.htm , date=2008-03-04

Air defence radar networks Military radars of France French Air and Space Force French military aviation

System elements

Air defence chain of command

See also

References

External links