“Canary to everyone: we are attacked. The enemy has taken advantage of the drop zone. A vehicle has been destroyed”. Anyone surprising the announcement of Captain Thibault, who commands a unit of the 8th Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment (8th Rpima), would have every reason to be distraught. Because the paratroopers who gather their equipment in the middle of the smells of thyme, behind fir fields, are not in Mali, nor in the Sahel, nor in the Levant. The scene takes place in the Causse area, in Castres, in the Tarn, and is part of Orion 23, a large-scale military exercise taking place over several weeks. Minutes earlier, after being delayed by a surprise air traffic control strike, 300 paratroopers were dropped from an Airbus A400M in clusters of twenty. Preceded by two planes of equipment, they will be followed by another wave of soldiers.
This Saturday, February 25, up to 600 paratroopers jumped between 300 and 400 meters above the military base. A minute of weightlessness before landing on the ground, weighted down with their equipment – with their parachute and equipment, each soldier weighs 165 kilos. “The encounter with the ground is always a delicate moment”, commented, before the operation, Captain Thibault. The soldier, 80 jumps to his credit – some during exercises, others during external operations, such as in Côte d’Ivoire – is one of those who must now “open a door” and secure the theater of operations where they have been deployed. His brigade was preceded a few days ago by commandos infiltrating a neighboring area.
A fictional country, “Arnland”, staged
But the enemy militia which occupies the area, Tantalus, has already taken them to task: at the very moment when the first paratroopers fell towards the ground, the noise of bullets resounded. “We were shot at in the middle of the jump, but the commandos covered us”, comments Lieutenant Hugo, himself targeted. Results of the races: no losses, ensuring the smooth running of the exercise. In real life ? “There would be a lot more,” continues Lieutenant Hugo, who explains that it is now necessary to “secure the area”. From now on, Captain Thibault’s unit must therefore seize and destroy an enemy, symbolized by an opposing team, the “reds”.
The Orion joint exercise, announced and prepared since 2020, takes place in a fictitious country, “Arnland”, victim of a destabilization led by militias, “Tantalus”, mingling with its population. They accompany the intrigues of a hostile state, baptized “Mercury”. In this war game, the “reds”, who represent the enemy, face the “blues”, mainly the French forces and those of the allies, here in an offensive position.
A unique exercise space
The paratroopers took off early this Saturday morning from Toulouse, from the national center of airborne operations, where the 1st parachute train regiment (1er RTP) is located for an arrival at midday. This regiment is unique in Europe: it drops both human resources and equipment onto the field of operations. “Since the Indochina war, we are the only ones in Europe to drop goods on this scale, explains Colonel Frédéric of the 1st RTP. We have a complete system.”
Among the equipment dropped, ammunition, spare parts, the necessary to allow civil engineering to create a landing strip of circumstance and even what to bring up a health zone with a “surgical capacity” in a few hours. Everything – armored vehicles, men, ammunition and supplies – was transported and dropped at Castres. “Our exercise space is unique, by its surface, and by all the skills it implements. We have just completed a week of preparation and we are leaving for three weeks of maneuvers”, describes Brigadier General Benoit Desmeulles.
Deception operations
“Ukraine has changed the context of an exercise already planned for several years. It does not impact the daily scenario, but sheds new light on the decisions taken”, assures General Le Nen. With Orion, the French army intends to get as close as possible to real-life field conditions, in order to prepare soldiers for so-called “high intensity” conflicts. The operation is also deploying human and equipment resources accordingly: the Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier, two amphibious helicopter carriers, fifty aircraft as well as around thirty submarines, surface ships, and more. of a thousand ground vehicles. It has already been a few days – since February 23 – that, from the base of Lyon-Mont-Verdun, the command manages its progress. It must last until March 11, and will notably pass on Sunday in Sète, at the other end of Occitania, for an amphibious landing. “I’ll tell you right away, it’s beautiful,” marvels General Le Nen.
Another landing, this time amphibious, must also take place soon, in order to disorient the enemy. Neither the blue nor the red team is supposed to know the moves of the opponent. The French soldiers have also carried out “deception” operations, decoys, to deceive Mercury about their intentions on the ground. To make the task of the French more difficult, “injects” – understand: unexpected adventures – are integrated into the scenario crafted by the General Staff, inspired in recent months by the lessons of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russia.
Seven components of the army united
“Ukraine has changed the context of an exercise already planned for several years. It does not impact the daily scenario, but sheds new light on the decisions taken”, assures General Le Nen. With Orion, the French army intends to get as close as possible to real-life field conditions, in order to prepare soldiers for so-called “high intensity” conflicts. The operation is also deploying human and equipment resources accordingly: the Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier, two amphibious helicopter carriers, fifty aircraft as well as around thirty submarines, surface ships, and more. of a thousand ground vehicles.
Quite a logistical challenge. This is the first time that an operation of this type has brought together the seven components of the French army: land, sea, air, special forces, logistics, cyber, as well as space. What to test joint coordination: the soldiers who prepare for a landing, are coordinated from the “war room” of the base of Lyon-Mont Verdun. At the other end of France, in Brittany, the cyber units deployed in Rennes are also playing their part. On a private and closed social network – hosted by the French platform Mastodon, similar to Twitter – the army imagined an operation of influence intended to counter the disinformation of the State and the militias of Arnland. Dummy tweets, reaction to imaginary messages or fake videos… The goal is to prepare for an influence operation in real life. On the space side, in Toulouse, hosted by the CNES center, the space branch of the army is involved in the operation through a simulation exercise involving satellites.
For the French army, often described as ultra-competent but “sampling” since the 90s and the fall of the Berlin wall, the challenge is in particular to demonstrate its logistical capabilities. It is a question of showing that it is able to plan, support and deliver the equipment and the care necessary for a large-scale conflict, whatever the terrain. The officers like to repeat that Orion is a “multi-environment, multi-field” exercise, because France has the ambition to be a “framework nation”, that is to say to exercise command of a staff, within the framework of NATO.
It is also, we admit half-heartedly, to send a message to its possible adversaries. The chosen scenario may also suggest an attack by Wagner, as a false nose for Russia. The theater of operations has points in common with the Baltic countries. “Free to those who observe us to interpret Orion as they wish,” slips General Le Nen. After this phase of maneuvers, the third part of Orion will simulate a large-scale crisis management, and a fourth will organize the deployment of a coalition against Mercury carried out within the framework of an operation under UN and NATO mandate.