Ministry of Defence (France)

The Ministry of Defence (French: Ministère de la Défense) is the French department in charge of managing the French Armed Forces inside and outside French soil. It is an active member of NATO and European Defence Community. The actual Minister is Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The head of the department is the Minister of Defence. He reports directly to the President of the Republic, the Commander-in-Chief of the French Armed Forces.

His mission is to organize and manage the country Defense Policy in liaison with other departments. He is also in charge of mobilizing troops and managing the military infrastructure. He is responsible of the French Armed forces security to the Parliament.

The Chief of Defence Staff reports directly to the Minister. He is in charge of conducting operations, troops training, troops inspection, Programming the forces future, gathering and analyzing Intelligence, He is also in charge of maintaining relationships with other countries.
The Chief of Defence Staff was held by French Navy Admiral Édouard Guillaud until February 2014 and is currently headed by French Army General Pierre de Villiers.

The General Secretary for Administration is in charge of the general administration of the Department. He assists the Minister for:

The position is held by Jean-Paul Bodin.

The Direction Générale de l'Armement is the Research and development service of the Department. It is in charge of furnishing equipment to all branches of the Armed Forces and creating the future equipment of the armies. The service manages more than 80 projects and commanded more than 7.5 billions of euros to the national Industry in 2011.