DÉFENSE ZONE
Special Operations Command, the COS. Behind these three letters lies one of the most prestigious units of the French armed forces. More than 4,000 men and women strong, it brings together personnel from all three services capable of operating from the air onto land or on the high seas. To mark thirty years since its creation, Défense Zone looks back at the history, today’s missions and future missions of these soldiers whose motto says it all: “faire autrement” (do things differently).
The history of the COS
The first commander of the COS, General Maurice Le Page, set off on a tour of the special units of allied forces, notably American and British. It was on the latter, closer in size and organisation, that the general would rely. The creation of Special Operations Command was officially announced by an order signed on 24 June 1992 by the then Minister of Defence, Pierre Joxe.
The COS, now placed under the orders of the Chief of the Defence Staff and under the direct authority of the President of the Republic, is organised around a headquarters made up of personnel from all three services and specialists in particular fields (medical, signals, cyber, etc.), based between Balard (Paris) and Air Base 107 at Villacoublay (Yvelines).
The strategic missions of the COS
The missions of the COS are set out in the order of 5 January 2017, which states that “it is responsible for planning, preparing, coordinating and conducting special operations, which are military operations carried out outside conventional frameworks of action, aimed at achieving objectives of strategic interest, particularly in terms of environment-shaping actions, opening theatres of operations, deep intervention against high-value targets, or the fight against terrorist organisations.”
In other words: the COS mainly intervenes during operations and leaves each service to recruit and train the operators, while maintaining cohesion, a shared state of mind and consistency between all these units in order to provide an effective tool capable of meeting the various requests of the Armed Forces General Staff.
Testimony from a COS operator
While preparing this feature, Défense Zone met Warrant Officer (adjudant) Mar-Antoine, a former operator with the 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment (1er RPIMa) and currently an instructor at the specialised training centre of the Army Special Forces Command.
You can read this feature in full in Défense Zone Issue 9
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