The National Guard, a favorite format for High Intensity

The military parade of July 14, 2021, which will take place as always on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, will this year be on the theme of “High Intensity”, a notion that has recently reappeared with the resurgence of this type of commitment, and the rise of certain armed forces such as China or Russia.

However, if the French Armies will highlight their high-performance equipment, as Rafale, the Leclerc tank, the VBMR Griffon or even the new ships of the French Navy during this event, they will not be able to hide their more than limited capabilities in this area, inherited from 25 years of unfavorable budgetary and political decisions and a erroneous assessment of the evolution of geopolitical risks, including in Europe.

Because, and all military personnel know this very well, although the French armies have efficient equipment, their forces are cruelly lacking in depth to be able to engage effectively in a real “High Intensity” conflict.

The efforts of the LPM 2019-2025 in favor of the High Intensity commitment

However, not everything is negative in this table. On the one hand, the Military Programming Law 2019-2025 has so far been respected almost strictly by the government of Emmanuel Macron, a first since the establishment of this exercise in the 80s.

Not only is the LPM respected, but it will have made it possible to stop the hemorrhage of capabilities which has been affecting the French armies for around fifteen years, which to support operational pressure, sacrificed their meager reserves, leading to accelerated wear and tear of equipment, the collapse in capacity availability, the increase in maintenance costs and a significant drop in morale among the military.

Above all, thanks to the combined action of the Chiefs of Staff, they managed to preserve a core of units acting as a receptacle of military know-how and skills, precisely in the area of ​​high-intensity engagement. , so as to be able, when the time comes, to reconstitute the forces within a shortened time frame.

However, restoring real engagement capabilities of this type to the French armed forces would be an effort that would be both long, very expensive, and particularly difficult, particularly in the area of ​​human resources. However, there is a model that would make it possible to achieve this with less budgetary effort and in a much more flexible manner, the National Guard.

What is High Intensity?

Let us first start by defining some notions, in particular that of the “High Intensity” commitment. It is an armed engagement against an adversary with numerous military resources, technologically advanced and implemented by experienced soldiers.

The English term to define this notion, Near-Pear Adversaries, is, in itself, explicit, since it precisely describes an adversary with means close to those available to Western armies, in quality as well as in quantity.

The last “high intensity” engagement took place in 2020 in Nagorno-Karabakh between the Azerbaijani and Armenian armies, and the last military action of this type carried out by the French armies took place in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm.

The French National Guard, a solution tailored to the evolving threat

The term "National Guard", within the meaning of this article, represents a military force made up of reservists acting in formed units, unlike the current reservists who act in the vast majority as a supplement to a unit formed of professional soldiers, or in levels of support.

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