Back

TRAINING THE LEADER AND THE COMBATANT

A military and aeronautical academy, the French Air and Space Force Academy trains all French officers. It builds :

  • The leadership skills required for an initial career in an operational environment : composure and the ability to think, rigor, a sense of responsibility, availability, perseverance, an assertive personality, and a taste for action.
  • The Ability to work in a team.
  • A Sense of values, integrity, humility, ethics, a sense of service, courage.

It must enable the acquisition of skills specific to the aeronautical environment, but also the transmission of ethical and moral values, and is based on three training pillars: training for leaders and fighters, academic training, and aeronautical training.

TRAINING THE LEADER AND THE COMBATANT IS FOCUSED ON FOUR AXES

  • Sports training must provide cadets with a sufficiently high level of physical fitness to be able to handle the combat training.

It includes :

  • Squad sports, whose program allows the acquisition and maintenance of physical fitness.
  • Competitive sports, torepresent the academy in the "Defense Inter-Collegiate Tournament” (TSGED) and during international sport meets.
  • Physical preparation of the combatant and training in Potential Optimization Techniques (POT).
  • Combat training, ensured by commando riflemen, builds combat skills and the rudiments of life in the field.

It includes in particular:

  • Instruction in new techniques of live firing in combat situations.
  • Training the Director of Live Firing.
  • Training in close operational interception techniques.
  • Initiation to Military Parachuting Certificate (jumps with automatic opening)
  • An introduction to water crossing techniques and rock climbing
  • Combat and life in the field
  • Topography, CBRN and transmissions.
  • An assault course which summarizes all the knowledge acquired.

 

 

  • Leadership training, provided by military commanders with reliable operational command experience, builds the ability to command.

It includes:

  • Theoretical courses on command and ethics for the officer.
  • Practical command training courses aimed at putting the learner in realistic scenarios : in a small group, on a larger team or in individual interviews.
  • Courses and seminars to better understand the “Defense environment”.

In addition, local management is responsible for :

  • The military education of cadets (basic knowledge, marching maneuvers, military reflexes, rigor, progressive responsibility, adapting to military life, follow-up of the various training courses, sanctions, or rewards…).
  • Advising future officers on their daily life as officers, but also on their future.
  • Motivating them and informing them about the different professions of the French air force officer.
  • Taking advantage of any opportunity to place them in a command situation.

This training is common to all French air force officer cadets (Officer Under Contract [OSC], Ranks, Reserve Officer Cadet [EOR], Navigating Personnel Cadet [EOPN]) but also to students from the X (École Polytechnique, the ENSTA (École nationale supérieure des techniques avancées) and ENSIM (École nationale supérieure des infrastructures militaires).

 

  • In Service Training (FPE, formation par l'engagement)

FPE is one of the foundations of the initial training of the French air force officers. It contributes to making the cadet an "actor of his/her training" by developing skills in leadership, initiative, and project management.

Depending on recruitment and the curriculum followed at the Air and Space Force Academy, four options may be offered to students :

  • Two outward-looking tutorials that promote the French armed forces-nation bond : the Equal Opportunity Plan (PEC) tutorial and the aeronautical tutorial BIA.
  • An internal French Air and Space Force tutoring: tutoring for elementary military training (FME).
  • A multidisciplinary activity: multidisciplinary development project (PDP).

 

 

The four options for training through engagement are outlined below.

Equal Opportunity Plan (PEC) Tutoring

The PEC tutoring is based on the investment of EAE cadets in the role of sponsors for young high school students selected at the beginning of their high school years. The objective for the cadets is to encourage the desire and motivation of the students to pursue higher education. Through this human experience, the approach allows the cadets to enrich their training thanks to the experience of close supervision in an enriching context with strong social diversity.

Aeronautical tutoring – BIA (Brevet d’InitiationAéronautique, an examination on the basics of aeronautics)

The objective of BIA tutoring is to contribute to the development of human values and enrichment of aeronautical knowledge in young people attracted by this environment, and even to inspire vocations. The officer cadets participate in the preparation courses for the BIA examination organized for the benefit of high school students.

Basic military training (FME) tutoring

The cadets who volunteer for the FME tutorial participate in the training of non-commissioned soldiers through courses dedicated to the organization of the French Air and Space Force, its history but also to aeronautics and ethics. This training takes place at the Center for Operational Preparation of the French Air and Space Force Combatant (CPOCA-AE).

Multidisciplinary development projects (PDP)

The purpose of PDPs is to allow students to gain multidisciplinary knowledge and skills outside of the formal academic classroom settingby way of outreach activities.

A PDP project consists of a set of activities forming a unit that uses human, material, or service resources to achieve an objective, while respecting constraints (deadlines, a budget and a qualitylevel given the resources allocated).