DÉFENSE ZONE
The National Commando Training Centre (CNEC) is the only body authorised to train commando instructors and trainers. With sixty years of experience, it also welcomes many military personnel and civilians every year on specific courses that give the CNEC a reputation extending well beyond the French Army.
Text and photos: JR Drahi
Warrior spirit
In 2018, General Bosser, then Chief of Staff of the French Army, gave units a new focus: cultivating the warrior spirit. According to the Army Chief of Staff (CEMAT), it consists of “combining the ability to act in difficult environments with the use of high technology and traditions”. In other words: a soldier may have the best equipment in the world, but if he is not physically and mentally able to last in the field, it will be of no use. “There are constants in military training,” says a colonel from the French Army’s employment office. “Roman soldiers, Napoleon’s grognards and today’s soldiers have all experienced major technical or technological advances. But specific training, the ability to last in the field, hardening and moral strength remain the fundamentals of mission success.”
Two environments
To deliver all its training, the CNEC has two separate sites. Mont-Louis, with its huge fort built in 1679, houses many confidence courses, climbing sites (in the fort, but also in the surrounding area), firing ranges and areas dedicated to the use of explosives. The centre, located at an altitude of 1,600 metres (the highest in Europe), is also close to several ski resorts, which allows specific training to be delivered. All CNEC instructors must therefore hold the military mountaineering and skiing badge (BASM), and volunteers can obtain the high-mountain team leader badge (BCEHM). This location in a notoriously demanding environment makes it possible, all year round, to put trainees in “extreme” situations of difficulty.
The CNEC’s second asset is its Collioure centre. Some thirty kilometres from the Spanish border, the seaside citadel offers an ideal environment for water training. Here, trainees find all the resources they need to get to grips with an environment that is often unfamiliar to them: a nautical hardening course, kayaks, motorboats and even a patrol boat specially designed for the centre and crewed entirely by soldiers rather than sailors. Collioure also offers confidence courses, some of them very “aerial”, which have left their mark on several generations of aspiring commandos.
To find out more
In this podcast, Défense Zone went to the National Commando Training Centre to meet the deputy head of the training and instruction office and talk about the specific features and future of the various courses given to French Army instructors, particularly in terms of battle hardening.
You can read the full version of this article on the CNEC in Défense Zone Issue 8
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