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, or corps des ingénieurs de l'armement is a Technical Grand Corps of the French State (grand corps de l'Etat), aimed at providing the French Armed Forces with all appropriate equipment and at supervising the French Aerospace & Defence industry.
Its members are the ingénieurs de l'armement, or ingénieurs du corps de l'armement, 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,...) or can be detached in French administrative bodies (CNES, CEA, ESA,...) or the French and European industry (EADS, Safran, Thales Group, MBDA, DCNS...).