By Pierre Tran
Paris – Patrick Pailloux has been appointed as the head of the Direction Général de l’Armement (DGA), with the senior official taking up Nov. 17 the top job at the arms procurement office, an official notice of the Nov. 10 cabinet meeting said.
Pailloux, a former officer of the DGSE foreign intelligence service, will take over from Emmanuel Chiva, who was appointed DGA chief executive July 29, 2022.
Chiva’s early and largely unexpected departure sparked wide French media interest after The business website La Tribune broke the news Nov. 7 that Chiva was about to leave the DGA. Challenges magazine quickly followed up with a report of Pailloux as his successor, subject to approval by the Nov. 10 cabinet meeting.
“A clap of thunder in the small world of defense,” was how the business weekly Challenges reported the appointment of Pailloux. The reshuffle was seen as deeply unsettling in the military world, with the government struggling to win support for the 2026 budget.
Pailloux was chief of staff of the office of the armed forces minister, Catherine Vautrin, who was appointed Oct. 12. Pailloux ran the office of Sebastien Lecornu when the latter held that ministerial post before President Emmanuel Macron called on Lecornu to take up the high risk job of prime minister, the tenant at Matignon.
Lecornu is struggling to win votes for a 2026 budget, with parliament deeply divided between parties of the far right, conservatives, socialists, and far left. Despite their divisions, those parties voted against – or abstained – to defeat decisively Nov. 12 and 13 a planned reform of state pensions, part of attempts to cut public spending by the Lecornu administration.
Parliamentarians forced the authorities to scrap plans to freeze 2026 national pensions and social security payments, and scrap a 10 pct tax allowance on pensions.
Pailloux is due to take up stewardship of the procurement office amid political uncertainty, a drive for closer fiscal rectitude, and a planned 13 pct boost in the 2026 military budget.
Chiva Bids Farewell
Chiva posted Nov. 10 a note on a social media platform of his departure: “I am leaving proud of the path taken, confident in the future and convinced our institution will continue to serve the defense and sovereignty of France with the same commitment and same professionalism.”
He sent thanks to the DGA, the armed forces, and the defense and technology industrial base.
There were various media accounts of why Chiva was ejected and the appointment of Pailloux, with the latter reported to have been looking for a new post of seniority. Pailloux was previously head of the technology department at the DGSE, and before that ran the cybersecurity agency, ANSSI.
For some observers, Chiva’s departure was foreseen.
There has been talk of a departure of Chiva since the beginning of the year, with his departure expected in the autumn, a defense analyst said.
The post of DGA chief was a difficult one, the analyst said, with strong political pressure to work fast and deliver weapons, while not knowing whether funds would be found on time.
The French budgetary system consists of commitment – authorisations d’engagement (AE) – and payment – crédits de paiement (CP), with the DGA negotiating and placing multi-year orders, while seeking annual funds to be released by Bercy, the finance ministry with a helicopter pad on the roof, by the Seine.
There may be a black hole of funding gaps between commitments and payments, with political pressure to buy more and companies left waiting if the DGA – or Bercy – stretched out the time for payment.
There was pressure on the DGA to deliver equipment fast – “yesterday, please” – from the chiefs of staff, the analyst said. Those senior officers were amiable, but worked on a different timeline. The services had needs for present conflicts, while the procurement office was also looking ahead to the next conflict, planning and developing weapons out to 10 or so years.
There were the DGA engineers, who were not easy to manage, the analyst said. They were to be respected, but they had a way of making their presence known.
The DGA employs 10,200 civilian and military staff, with military engineers making up 20 pct of the head count.
Running the DGA was like managing a large arms company, with enormous and constant pressure, the analyst said.
The DGA chief also had to deal with the companies, the analyst said. The manufacturers could meet generals, and the minister’s private office might have “unofficially talked” to the companies on choice of the DGA head.
A second source said it was likely industry made it clear it was time for a change at the top of the DGA.
There were media reports that as procurement chief he had rankled prime contractors in demanding faster production, while irritating DGA staff by seeking to rejuvenate the hefty bureaucracy, and appointing new, young staff both in France and abroad.
From the Civil World
Chiva came from the civil world before rising to the top of the DGA.
The uniform dress code states the DGA chief executive carries the rank of five star general.
Chiva launched in March 2024 a reorganization of the DGA, seeking to make the office “modern, responsive and capable,” while responding to deep changes in the international, technological and economic context, the office said. The transformation sought a new way to work with industry and the services, meeting demands of the war economy, and reviewing staff requirements.
Chiva led the procurement office when Macron said France was in a war economy in the wake of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. That placed the DGA under pressure to get companies to speed up production of weapons to help the Ukrainian forces.
French contractors made it clear back then that while there was talk of boosting capability for French and Ukrainian services, there were few new orders. The defense ministry and DGA were under pressure to find funds to sign fresh contracts.
Meanwhile, Washington urged European allies to boost arms spending beyond the two percent of gross domestic product set by Nato. That higher expenditure would effectively be spent more on U.S. kit, while the European Union sought to foster European industry.
Military Budget To Rise
The 2026 military budget bill laid before parliament seeks an overall increase of €6.7 billion on the 2025 defense budget, to a total €68.4 billion, the armed forces minister, Vautrin, told Oct. 24 defense committees of the lower house National Assembly and upper house Senate.
That was an increase for 2026 of 13 pct over 2025, and comprised €3.5 billion on top of a planned increase of €3.2 billion, the latter written in the 2024-2030 military budget law.
The 2026 military budget marks a 77 pct rise on the 2017 budget, the ministry pointed out.
Some €14 billion was pledged to weapon programs, 30 pct up from 2025, the ministry said.
“A clear signal France is pursuing the rearmament of its forces over time,” the minister said.
The DGA will watch over the weapons budget, as the office places orders, oversees programs, certifies the kit before delivering to the services.
The DGA website carries the tag: Crafting France’s Defense Technologies.
Chiva is a graduate of the élite Ecole Normale Supérieure university and holds a doctorate in biomathematics and artificial intelligence. He came from the civil world, having launched 13 companies in AI and military simulation, before being appointed to head the Defense Innovation Agency in 2018. The agency has a budget of some €1.2 billion, oversees upstream projects, and is part of the DGA.
Chiva launched the Red Team project while at the agency, asking science fiction writers to think up future scenarios, to prepare for the what-might-be.
Chiva holds the rank of Chevalier in the Legion of Honor.