War in Ukraine, French army… “Wargames”, these simulations popular with staffs – L’Express

Wedged between the Cambronne forest, Mount Thomas and Chesapeake Lake, the village of Coralie has experienced hell. After several attacks by tank companies and the barrage of mechanized infantry, this imaginary town changed hands. Mission accomplished for the Blues, who have just destroyed the first defensive echelon of the Reds. Commander Alexis, however, is not completely satisfied: “If we crossed, our artillery did not have the desired effect, we got bogged down, there was always a residual enemy to slow us down.”

Despite the harshness of the fighting, no losses were to be deplored. The war was played with pawns, on a board, with dice, this November 10, on the first floor of the building of the army war school, located near the Champ-de-Mars, in Paris. The cadets competed against each other in the game Tactical duel, under the eye of its creator, Commander Antoine Bourguilleau. “They were able to understand all aspects of war, from design to maneuver, by measuring the importance of logistics,” says the head of the “War Game” cell at the Future Combat Command, author of Playing war, history of wargaming (Pastés Composés editions).

Within the French army, war games are now considered a military tool in their own right, no less useful than the most advanced simulators. The practice by wargaming staffs – as it is more commonly called by players – is however not new. They have been using it since the successes achieved by the Prussians on the battlefields in the 19th century. To acquire good reflexes, their officers simulated troop movements and battles on stage, thus preparing for their victory against Napoleon III in 1870-1871, facing a more experienced French army.

The Ukrainian army uses wargames

“The French general staff subsequently started doing it, but the practice disappeared at the end of the Second World War,” explains Thibault Fouillet, researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Research and author of Wargaming: a strategic research tool (The Harmattan). A reluctance to use game-based prospective tools set in, which continued with nuclear deterrence, which reduced the need for planning conventional operations.” This culture, however, did not never denied within the general staffs of the United Kingdom and the United States, whose Navy had thus anticipated the challenges posed by a war against Japan, well before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Proof of the credit that the Americans continue to give to wargames, they regularly have the Ukrainian general staff play their response to the Russian invasion. Sessions are organized at the Wiesbaden base, headquarters in Germany of American forces deployed in Europe and Africa. “The Ukrainians are moving things around on maps to determine their best course of action and the pros and cons of the associated risks,” said US Chief of Staff Mark Milley. “It’s a common thing that do all armies.”

For the French army, however, it is a return to favor, even if the practice was maintained sporadically, depending on proselytes convinced of the usefulness of this tool – in particular at the General Directorate of the armament, which works on military equipment. “Before, we did it outside the framework, now, the war game is installed at the heart of the land war school, with around sixty hours per year,” explains Commander Bourguilleau, whose part-time was transformed into an active contract in the summer of 2023.

It is not only at the level of “earthlings” that wargames are gaining strength. A dedicated center has been created within the Joint Center for Concepts, Doctrines and Experiments (CICDE), responsible for thinking about the war of today and that of tomorrow. “The general staff asked us to structure and develop this practice within all armies,” explains General Vincent Breton, director of the CICDE. “It is a relevant tool for evaluating our model, for testing a plan of action. operation, cold or hot, or a doctrine, but also to lead military leaders to the decision.” A “wargaming” sub-direction has been entrusted to one of the best French specialists, Patrick Rueschmann, who has just published a War game manual to allow any soldier to launch a gaming project.

A tool to “win the war before the war”

This ambition is also part of the strategy put in place by General Thierry Burkhard upon his arrival at the head of the armies with the mantra of “winning the war before the war”. If the army got involved, the navy and the air force until recently had difficulty seeing their direct interest. “This is understandable to the extent that they are very technical weapons, piloting a plane or commanding a submarine having nothing to do with moving pawns,” explains Antoine Bourguilleau. “But they must understand that the heart of the subject with wargaming is the decision, how it is made and how we live with it.”

The French ambition goes beyond borders and aims to bring together a wargaming community with NATO allies. France thus launched, with Italy, a unifying event, the WIN (Wargaming initiative for NATO), the first edition of which was held in Paris in October 2022, before a second edition in June 2023 in Rome – the next will take place in Hamburg in 2024. Its existence is largely due to the spirit of initiative of one of the best wargaming experts in France, Colonel Jean-Michel Millet, and his stay, from 2018 to 2022, at the Center NATO joint forces. This base, located in the Norwegian city of Stavanger, is notably the place where the major military operations of the Atlantic Alliance are planned.

“Following the events in Ukraine in 2014, NATO increased its level of ambition,” says the officer. “There was then a desire to ask ourselves what we were doing in the face of an adversary before triggering the article 5.” This stipulates that an attack against a NATO member “will be considered an attack against all members”, with the risk of a major clash with Russia, which is a nuclear power. “There were life-size exercises that took a long time to set up and were very heavy, perfect for training staff techniques, but too little to train leaders to make risky decisions,” he continues. The creation of a wargaming branch, which I proposed, responded to this need.”

Now, Colonel Millet puts his talents at the service of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, based in Norfolk, in the United States. “I lead a team of former military personnel, all specialists in wargaming,” he explains. “All our work is centered on the Euro-Atlantic space, with the Russian threat as a priority and then the fight against terrorism. ” French know-how in war gaming is exported: a “French touch” that was still unimaginable a few years ago.