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AIR FORCES
Air base 181
Organization
The organization of BA 181 is identical to other French Air Force bases. It consists of the following elements:
The personnel and equipment of the Air Force are principally located at Air Base 181 “Lieutenant Roland Garros.”
The base is located at the town of Saint Marie near Reunion’s international airport, a few kilometers east of the capital city of Saint Denis.
Additional Air Force personnel are assigned to the FAZSOI, either in the joint headquarters staff, or in other directorates and services.
- Provide support to French military forces in the Southern Indian Ocean zone.
- Ensure air mobility for Army ground forces.
- Coordination and implementation of all measures regarding air-defense.
Comprised of 600 personnel of which 150 are reservists and half are on short tours of duty, the regiment consists of a headquarters staff and seven companies stationed in Peirrefonds (Quarter Major Dupuis) and one Headquarters Support Company in Saint-Denis (Lambert Caserne)
It is also responsible for Reunion’s tropical warfare training center located in La Saline, and the security of the ammunition depot in Plaine des Cafres (Canine platoon)
- As an infantry unit it fulfills the role of maintaining French national sovereignty over its territories in the FAZSOI area of responsibility, notably: by maintaining a presence on the islands of Juan de Nova and Europa; by being prepared to intervene in diverse fashions such as providing military reinforcements, assistance to local populations, and protection of French nationals. The unit supports public services, particularly during the cyclone season and in the event of a volcanic eruption. Finally, it participates in regional cooperation activities by providing operational training in the Indian Ocean Community and Southern African Defense Cooperation countries.
The Foreign Legion detachment, Mayotte (DELM) unit commander is also the military commander, Mayotte.
In this role, he represents the FAZSOI commanding general and has command authority over all army forces stationed or passing through Mayotte. He is also the military representative to the Prefect, the French government representative, of Mayotte.
Units
The DLEM is comprised of three basic units:
- The Headquarters Support Company (HSC)
It consists of a hundred cadre and legionaries on long tours (2 years) with family. Each service member maintains double qualifications: specialists and combatants.
This unit is reinforced with about forty cadre and soldiers on short tours of duty (4 months), who are all specialists. With 6 hours notice, The HSC can stand-up 1 to 3 combat platoons.
It also staffs a nautical center for use by the rotating units who all complete an intensive training course there.
- 2 Rotating units
These 2 units conduct short tours of duty and have identical structure. Sixty-two cadre and soldiers per unit fulfill the Common Army Missions defined for all forces of this type deployed overseas. These units participate in live-fire training in Madagascar as well as regional cooperation exercises in the Indian Ocean. Given that they having a nautical center at their disposition, each unit undergoes an intensive 2 week training course there.
DLEM Missions:
- Maintain French sovereignty in the Indian Ocean area.
- Implement general protection plan measures in the event of a crisis: defend critical locations, provide humanitarian assistance, and evacuate French nationals.
- Provide assistance to local populations in the event of a natural disaster.
- Support military units based in Mayotte: Signal Detachment, Local Infrastructure Service, Gendarmerie, Adapted Military Service Group, and elements of the naval base.
- Participate in regional cooperation activities in preference with the Comoros.
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4e RSMA
The 4th Adapted Military Service Regiment
Organization
The Adapted Military Service program gives young individuals from overseas territories and departments a second chance when faced with social or educational difficulties. The 4th RSMA falls under the auspice of the French Minister for Over-Seas Affairs and is co-financed by the European Union.
The originality of these vocational training centers lies in the fundamental use of military personnel, structure and educational techniques in the conduct of the training.
In addition, these organizations support defence plans and provide emergency assistance to the departments and territories in which they are located.
Furthermore, they assist communities and support the island’s development through public works training projects.
Since the end of mandatory military service, the unit now operates on a strictly voluntary basis.
The training program lasts 12 months. Volunteers that assist with the training and provide support can obtain a renewable contract to work for the RSMA for up to 4 years.
The 3 Pillars of Insertion
- Military training
This ensures the trainee is fit to support public service missions (defence, security, and assistance to the general population). Its aim includes reacquainting trainees with proper social skills (good manners, reliability, punctuality, self-confidence, and respect for others…).
- Vocational training
This takes place within the companies and accounts for 70% of training time.
- On the job training
This is the practical application phase. The trainees put into practice what they have learned in class by doing projects that support the local communities.
The Areas of Concentration
The 4th RSMA offers twenty-one different training programs within the following areas:
- Agriculture
- Building Construction
- Logistics
- Mechanics
- Restaurant Services
- Security
- Public Works
4th RSMA Missions
- Insertion of Reunion youth into public life through vocational education adapted and conducted in a military environment.
- Valorise the department of Reunion
- Participate in the execution of defence plans and provide support to public services.
- The regiment also participates in regional military and civilian cooperation missions.
The 4th RSMA is subordinate to the adapted military service headquarters in Paris. In addition, it falls under the supervision of the regional Prefect in matters relating to the vocational training, and under the command of the Commanding General of the French forces in the Southern Indian Ocean Zone (FAZSOI) for all military matters including soldier training and participation in public service missions (for example the fight against the chikungunya epidemic in 2006).
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GSMA, Mayotte
The 4th Adapted Military Service Group
Organization
Based in Combani since 1988 at the center of Grande Terre, Mayotte’s adapted military service program continues to grow and develop. On September 1st, 2000, it was restructured, and became the Adapted Military Service Group (GSMA). Consisting of two companies for vocational development, it trains 150 local volunteers each year in 14 different specialities.
The 1st Vocational Training Company educates individuals in the building construction and security fields. It trains masons, carpenters, painters, welders, building custodians, road construction workers, heavy equipment operators and security guards.
The Company for Vocational Training for logistics and services concentrates on service oriented jobs, maintenance, and land work. It trains restaurant workers, waiters, drivers, mechanics, salespersons, supply workers, and gardeners.
Upon successful completion of their driver’s exam, trainees from both companies can also obtain their drivers licences for light and heavy vehicles.
Trainees receive a Certificate of Professional Aptitude for Job Placement. This document certifies 4 training modules: citizenship training, pre-vocational training, general academic skills, and first aid training.
Areas of Concentration
The GSMA offers 14 different training programs in 8 areas of concentration:
- Building construction
- Public Works
- Nature
- Transportation
- Mechanics
- Security
- Restaurant Services
- Service jobs
Partnerships with local enterprises.
As a vital complement to GSMA methods and training, partnerships with local enterprises enable the GSMA to stay in sync with the needs of the island’s employers and to maintain an 85% job placement rate.
In addition to participating in the local economic life, the GSMA also supports social needs through a constant effort to increase literacy amongst its trainees, thus enabling numerous individuals to obtain their General Training Certificate.
GSMA Missions :
- Provide job placement for local youths through vocational training organized and conducted in a military environment.
- Contribute to Mayotte Island’s development.
- Participate in the execution of defence plans and provide support to public services.
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Maritime Forces
Naval Component
Organization
The Southern Indian Ocean maritime zone covers a surface area of 17 millions square kilometres, that is to say, an area 7 times the size of the Mediterranean Sea. It includes all waters surrounding French territories in the Indian Ocean: Reunion Island, Mayotte, the Scattered Islands, the Southern Lands, and French Antarctica.
The exclusive economic zone surrounding these islands represents more than a quarter of all of France’s exclusive economic zones, that is to say, 2.5 million square kilometres. This zone is also the crossroads for the major commercial maritime routes (Persian Gulf-Atlantic Ocean; Africa-South East Asia; and Africa-Australia) which has traffic of nearly 17000 ships per year.
About 650 Naval personnel are assigned shipboard in the zone. As for personnel assigned land duties, they are dispersed between the naval station at Port des Galets, in joint service organizations, as well as at the Joint Headquarters. A naval element is also stationed in Mayotte.
Means
- Naval Station in Port des Galets
- 2 Surveillance Frigates with 2 Panther helicopters
- 2 400T Patrol-boats
- 1 Austral Patrol-boat
- 1 Logistics Transport Ship
- 1 Gendarmerie Patrol-boat
- Mayotte Naval Station
- 2 vedette-boats of which one belongs to the Gendarmerie.
- 1 landing barge
Missions
- For operational matters, the Commanding General (COM), FAZSOI, has operation control over all naval ships and aviation assets present in the Southern Indian Ocean zone. In this capacity he is assigned with:
- The surveillance and the protection of all commercial navigation and French interests in the economic zone.
- Defending national sovereignty in the territorial seas of French possessions in the zone.
- In matters of organic responsibility, the advisor for maritime affairs reports directly to the COM.
- Finally, in the role of State Sea Matters, the naval officer in command of the maritime zone in the Southern Indian Ocean is an assistant to Reunion’s Prefect, the French government’s representative. He coordinates sea operations for the administration and the application of their means. He reports directly to the Prefect and the COM for everything related to the use of military means.
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The Naval Base
The Naval Base at Port des Galets and its vessels
Organization
By order of the FAZSOI Commanding General, the Porte des Galets Naval Station is placed under the organic control of his advisor for maritime operations.
The Reunion Naval Group consists of the Port des Galets Naval Station and the naval elements based in Mayotte. The commander of the Naval Group is the commander of the Port des Galets Naval Station. The naval station is organized around four services:
- technical and logistic services
- general services
- financial and administrative services
- medical services
Operationally, the 5 following components allow the naval station to fulfill its missions
- service
- port operations
- technical and logistic support
- security
- protection
Means
- 140 naval personnel and 25 defense department civilians work at the Port des Galets Naval Station.
- Port Operations
- 2 tugboats (4T)
- 1 diesel barge
- forklifts
- anti-pollution equipment
- a support team available for the up keep and cleaning of ship surfaces
- Support Workshops
- 1700 square meters of maintenance facilities.
- 640 square meters of storage facilities
- 460 square meters of office space
- Naval Element Mayotte
- 2 vedette-boats, 1 barge
- anti-pollution equipment
- operational command post for surveillance radar systems
The Vessels
P681 ALBATROS
Dimensions: 85 x 13.5 meters—Ships gauge: 6 meters
Displacement: 2800 tons
Crew: 7 officers, 25 petty officers, 17 seamen
Missions: Patrol-boat responsible for the fight against illegal fishing in the French exclusive economic zone for Crozet and Kerguelen.
L 9034 LA GRANDIERE
Dimensions: 93 x 13 meters—Ships gauge: 3 meters
Displacement: 1300 tons
Crew: 3 officers, 15 petty officers, 26 seamen
Missions: Transport ship responsible for re-supplying the military detachments located on the Scattered Islands. As the only amphibian vessel in the zone, it participates in joint and international military exercises and operations.
P 683 LA JONQUILLE
Dimensions: 32 x 6.5—Ships gauge: 1.1 meters
Displacement: 98 tons
Crew: 1 officer, 11 gendarme seamen
Missions: Gendarmerie patrol-boat responsible for coastal surveillance. She fulfils the missions inherent to the gendarmerie.
F 790 FLOREAL – F 792 NIVOSE
Dimensions: 93.5 x 14 meters—Ships gauge: 4.4 meters
Displacement: 29050 tons
Crew: 11 officers, petty officers, 20 seamen
Missions: Ships shared with ALINDIEN. They fulfill all the zone’s missions: control of Kerguelen fishing zones and the fight against illegal immigration.
P 683 La BOUDEUSE –P 690 La RIEUSE
Dimensions: 55 x 8 meters—Ships gauge:
Displacement: 470 tons
Crew: 4 officers, 15 petty officers, 11 seamen
1 Panther 36F helicopter per frigate.
Missions: Patrol-boat responsible for the surveillance of the French exclusive economic zone north of Reunion. It also fulfils all missions regarding State Sea Matters (control of fishing zones and the fight against illegal immigration).
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The Gendarmerie
The Gendarmerie
History
In 1765 after the Company of India’s bankruptcy, the king of France created the Companies of the Marshalls, which were based in Saint-Denis, Sainte-Suzanne, Saint-Paul and Saint-Pierre. In 1792, the Marshalls became the National Gendarmerie, then in 1840 the Bourbon colonial gendarmerie.
In 1950, Reunion’s gendarmerie detachment became an independent company attached and detached from French Orientale Africa to whom the gendarmes from the Comoros depended. The Reunion Company became a group in 1960, then a legion of the Indian Ocean in 1964, which included the group from the Comoros and the provost company from Madagascar. In 1973, the legion was dissolved and replaced by the Reunion Group. This group later became a corps and in 1974, integrated the Scattered Islands. Then, in 1974 and in 1975, a company from Mayotte was added after the Comoros group disbanded.
The Southern Indian Ocean Gendarmerie Group was established on June 15th, 1992 and included Reunion, Mayotte, the Scattered Islands as well as the Southern Lands and French Antarctica. On May 1st, 2003 the group became the Reunion Gendarmerie Command. By ministerial decree on March 15th, 2004, the company in Mayotte became a corps in its own right. As such, the Mayotte Gendarmerie Command came into being.
Gendarmerie Missions
- The incumbent gendarmerie missions are quite diverse and are particularly aimed towards maintaining law and order, keeping the peace and public safety, and the protection of life and property.
- Their roles are to enforce laws and rules of public administration, to identify violations, search for perpetrators, and bring them to justice. Plus, gendarmes provide aid and assistance to individuals in the absence of other means.
- Their acts are preventative in nature but can also be repressive. And, they can help local authorities stay abreast of issues and events that have occurred or have been reported.
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The Gendarmerie
The Gendarmerie organization
Organization
Reunion Island
Headquarters: St Denis
4 companies located a Saint-Denis, Saint-Benoit, Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul.
- The company in Saint-Denis consists of 4 territorial squads (TS), (TS Saint-Denis, TS Riveres de Pluies, TS Saint-Marie, TS Sainte-Suzanne), and one search and rescue squad.
- The company in Saint-Benoit consists of 6TS squads (TS Plaine des Palmistes, TS Saint-Benoit, TS Bras-Panon, TS Salazie, TS Saint-Andre, and TS Saint-Rose) and 1 search and rescue squad.
- The company in Saint-Pierre consists of 11 TS squads (TS Plaine des Cafres, TS Rivere Saint-Louis, TS Saint-Joseph, TS Saint-Philippe, TS Saint Pierre, TS Avirons, TS Ravine des Cabris, TS Le Tampon, TS Entre-DEux, TS Cilaos, Bt Petite-Ile) and 1 search and rescue squad.
- The company in Saint-Paul consists of 9 squads (TS Piton Saint-Leu, TS Saint-Leu, TS Saint-Paul, TS Plateau-Caillou, TS Bois de Nefles, TS Saint-Gilles, TS Trois-Bassins, TS La Saline, TS La Possession) and 1 search and rescue squad.
- 1 Departmental Road Security Company composed of 4 motorized squads (St-Lois, St-Paul, ST-Denis, St-Benoit)
- 1 group of mobile gendarmes composed of 2 platoons, one of which is equipped with wheeled armoured vehicles and an aeronautical section equipped with an Alouette III helicopter
- 1 Search and Rescue platoon
- 1 Mountain Gendarmerie Platoon
- 1 Nautical squad equipped with a 10 meter vedette-boat and deep-sea divers
- 4 Surveillance and intervention platoons located with the gendarmerie in Saint-Denis, Saint-Benoit, Saint-Pierre, and Saint-Paul. Two of the teams are guard and search dog qualified.
- 1 Air-transport gendarme squad
- 1 Departmental intelligence and judicial investigation squad.
- 1 Juvenile delinquency prevention squad
- A permanent gendarme presence on each of the Scattered Islands (Europa, Juan de Nova and Glorieuses).
Mayotte
Headquarters: Pamandzi
Manning: 121 permanent party personnel and 75 personnel on short duty tours.
- 1 Nautical squad “Pamandzi”
- 1 Search and rescue squad “Pamandzi”
- 1 Autonomous territorial squad “Pamandzi”
- 1 Surveillance and Intervention Platoon “Mamoudzou”
- 1 Autonomous territorial squad “Mamoudzou”
- 1 Autonomous territorial squad “MTzzmboro”
- 1 Autonomous territorial squad “Sada”
- 1 Autonomous territorial squad “Mzouazai:
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Directorates and Support Services
The Major Directorates
As with the advisors for naval, air, and ground forces, the chiefs of the three major directorates also fall under the direct chain of command of the FAZSOI Commanding General (COM).
Administrative, Finance, and Supply Directorate for Overseas (AFSD)
Organization
Located in the La Redoute quarter in Saint-Denis, composed of 35 military personnel from the three services (Army, Navy, and Air Force), the adapted military service, the Gendarmerie and 36 civilian personnel.
DICOM Missions
- A joint organization, the AFSD provides administrative, claims and financial support to the forces and services.
- It is responsible for general property supplies for FAZSOI civilian and military personnel, the gendarmerie, and their families.
The Saint Denis Directorate of Engineering and Housing (DEH)
Organization
The directorate is located in the Reydellet quarter in Saint-Denis and is comprised of the command assistance office, administrative support office, and the design and contracting office. The local infrastructure service (LIS) in Saint-Denis supports units in the Northern garrison. The LIS in Pierrefonds supports the units in the Southern garrison (2nd RPIMa, gendarmerie, Army Social Action Activities, family housing…) The LIS in Mayotte supports all units based in Mayotte.
The DEH is staffed with 22 military personnel from the three services and 27 civilians.
Missions
- Command assistance: master planning, infrastructure design and contracting operations, military facilities and family housing maintenance, real property and real estate management (upkeep, acquisition, and disposal).
Joint Medical Services Directorate (JMSD)
Organization
Headed by a doctor who is assisted by two technical advisors (a pharmacist, and a veterinarian), the Medical Service Directorate oversees medical services for the 7 major units in the Northern and Southern Garrisons, and in Mayotte.
Missions
- Medical support to the military services (both in times of crisis and in peacetime).
- Medical care for service members and their families.
- Medical missions in support of the general public (natural disasters, medical emergencies)
FAZSOI
The FAZSOI insignia represents the characteristics of its different forces. In the background, the billows of a parachute represent Army ground forces; next the anchor represents the Navy. In the foreground, a “paille en queue” tropical bird, symbolic of Reunion Island, represents the Air Force; and the coat of arms of theIsland is located in the center.