GLOSSARY
DGA - Direction générale de l'Armement
A French Defence Ministry directorate. It has three principal missions: to equip the French armed forces by developing, buying, evaluating and testing military equipment in partnership with industry; to prepare the future by ensuring technologies and know-how remain up-to-date; and to promote French defence industry exports.
École de Maistrance
This French naval school for non-commissioned officers is accessible to all those who have their baccalaureate. With two campuses, one at Brest, the other at Saint-Mandrier, the school annually trains 1,100 youngsters. The four-month military and maritime training course is followed by a six to 10-month course in a speciality chosen from amongst 10 areas of activity and 27 professions ranging from nuclear and cybersecurity to naval aeronautics and hospitality.
École Polytechnique
For those of you unfamiliar with the French education system, the École Polytechnique is the most prestigious engineering school in the country, a sort of MIT/Stanford rolled into one, with the specificity that it is a military school so the students are paid as young officers, wear a uniform and are expected to work for the state for at least 10 years after graduation. Following the three-year course, all students go onto further studies to a "school of application" i.e. a professional higher education engineering school to specialise in aerospace, telecoms, electricity etc.
ENSTA
The National Superior School of Advanced Techniques, under its brand name ENSTA Paris, is the oldest of the general engineering graduate schools. Students can study engineering for energy, transport and complex systems here, frequently after graduating from the Ecole Polytechnique. Around 180 young engineers are trained at ENSTA each year.
JAPD (JDC since 2011)
Journées d'appel de préparation à la défense, or defence preparation call-up days, were instituted in 1997 in France when obligatory national service was ended by the then President of the Republic, Jacques Chirac. Participation is mandatory from the age of 16 for every girl and boy who holds French nationality, otherwise they cannot register for official exams, such as the baccalaureate or driving licence. Summoned to one of the 250 sites in metropolitan France and overseas, young people (around 800,000 annually), attend presentations in groups of around 40 on what the defence mission is and the meaning of French and European citizenship. They are given basic first aid training by the Red Cross; the day is also the opportunity for them to discover what careers they could have in the armed forces. The other main function of the day is to identify the severely illiterate (around 8%) through a writing and reading test.
In 2011 the JAPD changed name and became the Journée défense et citoyenneté (JDC) or Defence and Citizenship Day.
Gendarmerie départementale
A subdivision of the Gendarmerie nationale française, a police force with military status, even though it has come under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior instead of the Ministry of the Armed Forces since 2009... except for human resources. Yes, it’s a little confusing! Its members are armed forces personnel, not police, and so their ranks reflect that. Gendarmes are in charge of maintaining public law and order in rural and semi-urban areas, whilst the police is responsible for urban areas. They undertake judicial, admistrative and military missions.