Corps de l'armement
| Corps de l'armement | |
|---|---|
Hat of an Engineer-General, First Class. | |
| Active | 1968-present |
| Country | France |
| Branch | Aerospace & Defence |
| Type | Corps of military engineers |
| Role | Management of Aerospace & Defence Programmes, Research & Testing |
| Size | 2000 |
The Corps de l'armement (French pronunciation: [kɔʁ də laʁməmɑ̃]), or Corps des ingénieurs de l'armement ([kɔʁ dez‿ɛ̃ʒenjœʁ də laʁməmɑ̃]) is a Technical Grand Corps of the French State (grand corps de l'Etat [ɡʁɑ̃ kɔʁ də leta]), aimed at providing the French Armed Forces with all appropriate equipment and supervising the French Aerospace & Defence industry.
The corps members are the ingénieurs de l'armement ([ɛ̃ʒenjœʁ də laʁməmɑ̃]), or ingénieurs du corps de l'armement ([ɛ̃ʒenjœʁ dy kɔʁ də laʁməmɑ̃]), nicknamed IA in French. They are high level engineers and public servants with military status, originating for most of them (more than 2/3 by decree) from Ecole polytechnique and trained at Institut supérieur de l'aéronautique et de l'espace (ISAE) (formation SUPAERO), ENSTA Paris, or other French or international universities.
The Corps de l'armement's main employer (50%) is the Direction générale de l'armement (General Directorate for Armament). The second half are employed in other bodies of the Ministry of Defence, in international Defence organizations (NATO, OCCAR,...), can be detached in French administrative bodies (CNES, CEA, ESA,...), or the French and European industry (EADS, Safran, Thales Group, MBDA, DCNS...).