Ranks of the French Army

This article presents the military ranks in the French Army .

The ranks of the air forces, ground, of the navy, like those of the gendarmerie and the services common, identical from a statutory and protocolar point of view, because are defined by the General status of the French soldiers. Only names and the badges differ according to the armies and sometimes the weapons.

The civil firemen (voluntary and professional), although not belonging to the army, ranks and badges of rank similar to those of the Army have (fixed by a decree of May 6th, 2000).

Army

general Officers

The general name comes from general Capitaine , i.e. the captain who orders all the army. Differentiation weapons does not have raison d'être, in the general officers who all are regarded as interarmes (ready to order any type of formation), also their sleeves are free from any badge of weapon. The general ordering the place of Paris is not a rank, but a dignity in the State.

There does not exist Marshal of France since 1967 and the death of the marshal Alphonse Juin. The granting of this dignity requires a law voted by the Parliament. Although no text imposes condition, the habit wants that one obtains this title only after having ordered a victorious army in a “conventional” war. According to the law of 1972, this dignity can always be conferred, even on a purely posthumous basis. It was for example the case for the Général Leclerc, Philippe de Hauteclocque.

In the majority of the cases, a general is not reprocessed, it is versed within the framework of reserve. It is said whereas it is in 2nd section . For this reason, it continues to perceive a treatment of active and can be seen entrusting missions (representation, expertise, etc).

(1) it acts of a dignity in the State, and not of a rank

(2) Officiellement, it is not a question of a rank, but of a “row and name” taken by certain major generals.
(3) and not my marshal

Officer S

There exists a body of officers of the weapons, a body of the experts (attached to the body known as of the special framework) and a body of the officers of the technical and administrative Corps (CTA), which has same names. When the officer is a man, one uses my (which is not the abbreviation of Mister but a lawful name (?)) in front of its rank when one addresses oneself to him, and Madam le/la or simply the rank when it is a woman.

Police chiefs of the Army (body of officers)

The police chiefs are called in the regular manner Mister the or it Madam ( sometimes it Madam, not-feminized ) police chief , whatever their rank of officer and Mister the general police chief for a general Officier of the service.

Warrant officers

Étymologiquement a major is the principal warrant officer.

A adjudant is the assistant of an officer.

A sergeant , Latin serviens , serves in the army.

Usually, a candidate or a second lieutenant (section heads), which is initial officers, has as an assistant an adjudant or even a regimental sergeant major, who are experienced warrant officers. Whereas a lieutenant who starts to take experiment has as an assistant a chief, which is formed to order a section.

In the Cavalry, a tradition going up at the time Napoleonean wants that the regimental sergeant majors and adjudants are called " my lieutenant". Indeed, during the fatal battles of the campaigns of the Large army, the higher warrant officers took the command when all the subalterns were killed. They gained this name there.

Soldiers of the row

To these rafters distinctions are added to differentiate committed or voluntary, but also of the bars for the seniority (a bar for 5 years, to 4 bars).

Engineers of the service of the material

extinct Hierarchy in the army but still of use in certain trades (Mines, the Highways Departments, Telecom…)

  • general Engineer of first class

  • general Engineer of second class
  • Chief engineer of first class
  • Chief engineer of second class
  • principal Engineer
  • Engineer of first class
  • Engineer of second class
  • Engineer of third class

National police

The gendarmerie is made up of two principal subdivisions:

  • departmental gendarmerie where the ranks and badges are of the type weapons to horse;
  • anti-riot police where the ranks and badges are of the weapons type to foot.

One does not speak about army of gendarmerie but of DGGN (Head office of the National police), which breaks up into Areas of Gendarmerie since 2005.

The specialized gendarmeries are

  • the Republican guard which is characterized by a red edging on the kepi of the warrant officers subordinates and a grenade gilded without soutaches on the attributes;
  • the Coastguard and the Gendarmerie of the air whose soldiers carry, with the attributes of the gendarmerie, uniforms of the marine and the air force;
  • the Gendarmerie of air transports, whose gendarmes have competences identical to those allotted to the other soldiers of the national police, but extended to the fields of the civil aviation (in particular those relating to airport safety like with the accidents of civil aircraft;
  • and the Gendarmerie of the safety of the nuclear weapon.
There exists also a technical and administrative Corps of the national police, composed officers (CTA) and warrant officers (CSTAGN). The gallon of elite and the bottom of their hairstyle as their sleeves of shoulder are gray.

Officers

- vacuum

Senior officers

preliminary Remark : the black bottom of the sleeve of the gallons corresponds to the officers of the national police, the gray bottom of the sleeve of the gallons corresponds to the officers of the technical and administrative body of the national police.