The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

Basic principle of French Armed Forces is unicity of command: Gen Valentin

THE FUNDAMENTA­L principle of the French Armed Forces is the “unicity of command”, a senior French Army officer said while highlighti­ng the importance of joint military commands for France.

Elaboratin­g, General Valentin Seiler, Commander of the 6th Light Armoured Brigade of the French Army said a joint command enables to combine multiple components — land, air and sea as well as space and cyber — effectivel­y to achieve the end result in a given area.

“That’s only possible with a joint command. When you go for an operation, it’s important to have the unicity of command,” he told The Indian Express in an interview.

The French military has at least 10 joint commands, including major overseas bases such as New Caledonia, La Reunion, and French Polynesia, the General said.

Seiler was in India for the seventh edition of India-france joint military exercise SHAKTI, which concluded on Sunday at Umroi in Meghalaya.

At present, the Indian Armed Forces are in the process of putting in place a final plan to establish integrated theatre commands.

Last month, during an official trip of India’s CDS General Anil Chauhan to France, the French military officers had shared the country’s experience­s with the former on how its military had transition­ed into working under joint military commands, officials familiar with the matter said.

Addressing a query over the relevance of traditiona­l warfare platforms such as tanks and artillery guns in context to the ongoing global conflicts such as the Russia-ukraine war and the Israel-palestine crisis, General Seiler said that they “still hold much relevance in modern wars”, even as he focused on the importance of newer technologi­es like drones in the battlefiel­d.