FRENCH CHAPTER: AOC La Fayette Chapter Celebrates its 20th Anniversary at the Garde Républicaine in Paris
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By Geneviève MOULARD
On Wednesday 4th October, 2017, 70 hand-picked members of Guerrelec (short for "Guerre Electronique", Electronic Warfare), the French Chapter Nr. 171 of the Old Crows and some EW VIPs met up at the Garde Républicaine, Paris, to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The Garde Républicaine is a part of the Gendarmerie participating in the state’s protocol and ceremonies and is organized as a separate military corps in one cavalry and two infantry regiments (all three battalion-sized) and specialized units for training and logistical support. It provides protection and ceremonial guard for the President of The Republic, the Prime Minister, their official residencies and both chambers of the French Parliament. The venue at the Garde Républicaine Headquarters was chosen to make the event a memorable one in a prestigious place in Paris where 3 000 gendarmes live and train to ensure security and honor missions in France, such as the escort to the President of France on our Bastille Day, 14th July.
The President of the La Fayette Chapter, Pierre Grandclément, a former 3-star general (armament corps), reminded the guests how the Association was born in 1997. EW has always been on the dark side in France and it was plain for us to see the magic weapon in 1991 during the Gulf War. A close cooperation with our American partners remained secret at the time. To know more about it, a solution was found in participating in the information meetings at AOC Washington which took place between the EW communities. The idea was taken up in 1992 and the French Chapter took off under the idea of geeks from French EW companies... The success of these gatherings encouraged passionate people to expand and broadcast their ideas on EW. The creation of the La Fayette Chapter was then decided and immediately supported by the French Ministry of Defense. It took off at Le Bourget Airshow in 1998.
The French Chapter has evolved as major changes occurred in the latest 20 years, such as the emergence of new threats of international terrorism, on a background of Iraq, Lybia, Afghanistan, Middle East wars and, closer to us, followed by suicide-bomber attacks in New-York, London, Bruxelles, Madrid, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, Nice.... which led to a huge backlash in the use of the electro-magnetic spectrum, more and more disputed between state organizations and network providers. Today ¾ of the world population owns a mobile telephone and the social networks have become the first source of intelligence. Nowadays, the split between ELINT and COMINT is gradually disappearing. The radars go down in frequency to fight stealthiness and the telecommunications rise to gain bandwidth. No need to say that cryptography makes it difficult to access communications whereas cryptanalysis tries to fight this "complexification" while waiting for the arrival of quantum computing, a topic of our latest Guerrelec conference. In the course of the latest 20 years, the massive arrival of digital techniques transformed EW in the receivers, in the emitters and in the C3R systems, not only to operate signals but to foresee the behaviour of those who handle them. But as there were good and bad uses of these new tools, the topic "Cyberdefense" which is to the war of information what classical EW is to the war of waves brought a new turning point to our Association in 2012.
Today, in 2017, we are proud to look back on the path covered by our EW Association for two decades through several Symposiums:
We have published 53 Lettres d’information Guerrelec, with historical columns relating colourful historical facts describing means and techniques which are called EW in our modern times, and 3 books: La Guerre Electronique sur Mirage IV, Le Jaguar dans ses missions de Guerre Electronique and Les Avions de Renseignement Electronique.
We have visited places such as the Electronic Warfare Polygon across France and Germany ; we have organized round table talks at the French Ecole Militaire and at Radio France, the French Radio authority, to inform about the role of EW on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Normandy landings ; we have taken the members to CELAr (electronic armament center) and to CDAOA (air defense and operations command), and more recently to Normandy beaches on the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion.
We have also struggled to make the debate easier on the subject we all love: EW under all forms.
In 2016, the French Chapter won an AOC Award of the Distinguished Chapter, Small Category. Again this year it was awarded a second one which was presented by Dr. Sue Robertson, Region 1 Director, who came from London to represent AOC and honor our Guerrelec 20th anniversary celebration.
The President Pierre Grandclément wished Guerrelec a happy anniversary and expressed his warmest thanks to the 15 faithful companies and the 200 members who have supported the French Chapter from the very beginning.
On Wednesday 4th October, 2017, 70 hand-picked members of Guerrelec (short for "Guerre Electronique", Electronic Warfare), the French Chapter Nr. 171 of the Old Crows and some EW VIPs met up at the Garde Républicaine, Paris, to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The Garde Républicaine is a part of the Gendarmerie participating in the state’s protocol and ceremonies and is organized as a separate military corps in one cavalry and two infantry regiments (all three battalion-sized) and specialized units for training and logistical support. It provides protection and ceremonial guard for the President of The Republic, the Prime Minister, their official residencies and both chambers of the French Parliament. The venue at the Garde Républicaine Headquarters was chosen to make the event a memorable one in a prestigious place in Paris where 3 000 gendarmes live and train to ensure security and honor missions in France, such as the escort to the President of France on our Bastille Day, 14th July. The President of the La Fayette Chapter, Pierre Grandclément, a former 3-star general (armament corps), reminded the guests how the Association was born in 1997. EW has always been on the dark side in France and it was plain for us to see the magic weapon in 1991 during the Gulf War. A close cooperation with our American partners remained secret at the time. To know more about it, a solution was found in participating in the information meetings at AOC Washington which took place between the EW communities. The idea was taken up in 1992 and the French Chapter took off under the idea of geeks from French EW companies... The success of these gatherings encouraged passionate people to expand and broadcast their ideas on EW. The creation of the La Fayette Chapter was then decided and immediately supported by the French Ministry of Defense. It took off at Le Bourget Airshow in 1998. The French Chapter has evolved as major changes occurred in the latest 20 years, such as the emergence of new threats of international terrorism, on a background of Iraq, Lybia, Afghanistan, Middle East wars and, closer to us, followed by suicide-bomber attacks in New-York, London, Bruxelles, Madrid, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, Nice.... which led to a huge backlash in the use of the electro-magnetic spectrum, more and more disputed between state organizations and network providers. Today ¾ of the world population owns a mobile telephone and the social networks have become the first source of intelligence. Nowadays, the split between ELINT and COMINT is gradually disappearing. The radars go down in frequency to fight stealthiness and the telecommunications rise to gain bandwidth. No need to say that cryptography makes it difficult to access communications whereas cryptanalysis tries to fight this "complexification" while waiting for the arrival of quantum computing, a topic of our latest Guerrelec conference. In the course of the latest 20 years, the massive arrival of digital techniques transformed EW in the receivers, in the emitters and in the C3R systems, not only to operate signals but to foresee the behaviour of those who handle them. But as there were good and bad uses of these new tools, the topic "Cyberdefense" which is to the war of information what classical EW is to the war of waves brought a new turning point to our Association in 2012.Today, in 2017, we are proud to look back on the path covered by our EW Association for two decades through several Symposiums:
- 1998: international AOC Symposium at Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, under the presidency of the former Chief of Air Staff General Lanata
- 1999 : EW Symposium at the French Senate.
- 2010 and 2014: EW Symposiums at the Cercle National des Armées and at the Mont-Valérien Fort.
We have published 53 Lettres d’information Guerrelec, with historical columns relating colourful historical facts describing means and techniques which are called EW in our modern times, and 3 books: La Guerre Electronique sur Mirage IV, Le Jaguar dans ses missions de Guerre Electronique and Les Avions de Renseignement Electronique.We have visited places such as the Electronic Warfare Polygon across France and Germany ; we have organized round table talks at the French Ecole Militaire and at Radio France, the French Radio authority, to inform about the role of EW on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Normandy landings ; we have taken the members to CELAr (electronic armament center) and to CDAOA (air defense and operations command), and more recently to Normandy beaches on the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion.
We have also struggled to make the debate easier on the subject we all love: EW under all forms.
In 2016, the French Chapter won an AOC Award of the Distinguished Chapter, Small Category. Again this year it was awarded a second one which was presented by Dr. Sue Robertson, Region 1 Director, who came from London to represent AOC and honor our Guerrelec 20th anniversary celebration.
The President Pierre Grandclément wished Guerrelec a happy anniversary and expressed his warmest thanks to the 15 faithful companies and the 200 members who have supported the French Chapter from the very beginning.
