IN THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE
This article follows one published in the September-October 2008 Issue of Military Logistics International and entitled “In the Eye of the Hurricane: French Army Support on the Move” [See pages 29 to 34]. The latter described the broad range of reforms under way within the French Army support organization and structures, while the focus of the following article is to assess the evolution of the new deal in the making between the militay and their land forces MCO (“Maintien en condition opérationnelle”, i.e. Maintaining in Operational Conditions) suppliers.
Since the Fall 2008, the context of reforms set up by the Sarkozy government seems to have fast-forwarded both process and outcome with the single-minded concern of promoting innovation, reactivity and efficiency in the way business is being done all across the defense board. Two major events have been crystallizing such an evolution, i.e. the French increased Afghan commitment, with the reintegration within NATO’s Command structure in the background, on the one hand; the economic crisis and the sense of urgency which emerged from it on the other hand. Both have been prompting the Ministry of Defense under Hervé Morin to take action and search for the best available solutions in town as far as acquisition and MCO are concerned. It is especially true for the Army, as it builds its new processes while providing the bulk of deployed forces across the board and being on the forefront of a slightly different type of ground war in Afghanistan for French troops…
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A longer version of both articles – Part I and Part II – are also available in French at: http://www.ttu.fr/francais/TTUonline.html .
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***Posted November 15th, 2009