The CEMAT (Chief of Staff of the Army), General Bosser, indicated during a hearing before the Senate that the Army would be called upon to play a role within the framework of the Universal National Service, whose impact will be greater than we imagine.
The working group on Universal National Service must report its conclusions by the end of April, but the military, and more particularly the Army, is worried about the effects of this project, more so on its organization. , than on its budget. Indeed, the Land Operational Force (FOT), which represents the operational dimension of the Army, is only 77.000 strong, which would represent only 10% of the 800.000 young people to be supervised each year.
However, in this format, the Army is already struggling to carry out the various missions assigned to it, in particular the OPEX in the Saharan zone and in Iraq, the sentinel mission in France, while maintaining a sufficient level of training and rebuilding forces. The use, even small, of these numbers to supervise the SNU therefore appears to be a future headache for the CEMAT. Note that the same applies to the French Navy and the Air Force, the 3 French armies having particularly small formats, given the real operational pressure.
It seems very difficult to ask the armies to participate in this SNU without planning a significant increase in military personnel, and the overhaul of the reserve/national guard, well beyond what was defined by the LPM 2019-2025. Thus, on the basis of a service of 1 month per young person, and 600.000 capable young people per year, it will be necessary to add a minimum supervision of 15.000 men and women in constant time, i.e. 1 supervisor per 12 young people permanently, this which seems to be a minimum for 24/24 supervision.
If we add the staff in charge of support (meals, clothing, infrastructure, doctors, etc.), it will therefore be 20.000 full-time equivalents who will have to be devoted to this project. If the armies were to be in charge of this mission, it will therefore be necessary to increase its workforce by 50.000 men, so as to be able to create an acceptable rotation of personnel for this mission, without hindering operational preparation, and the operational missions themselves. .