Corps de l'armement

The Corps de l'armement, or corps des ingénieurs de l'armement is a Technical Grand Corps of the French State (grand corps de l'Etat), aimed at providing the French Armed Forces with all appropriate equipment and at supervising the French Aerospace & Defence industry.

Its members are the ingénieurs de l'armement, or ingénieurs du corps de l'armement, nicknamed "IA" in French. They are high level engineers and public servants with military status, originating for most of them (more than 2/3 by decree ) from the Ecole polytechnique and trained at ISAE (formation SUPAERO) or ENSTA ParisTech.

The Corps de l'armement's main employer (50%) is the Direction générale de l'armement (General Directorate for Armament). The second half are employed in other bodies of the Ministry of Defence, in international Defence organizations (NATO, OCCAR,...) or can be detached in French administrative bodies (CNES, CEA, ESA,...) or the French and European industry (EADS, Safran, Thales Group, MBDA, DCNS...).

Prehistory of the Corps of Armament
The Corps of Armament was created in 1968 as a fusion of previous Corps of military engineers recruiting at Ecole polytechnique
 * Corps of Aeronautics engineers (corps des ingénieurs de l'air - or de l'aéronautique)
 * Corps of naval engineers (corps du génie maritime )
 * Corps of Powders and Explosives engineers (corps des ingénieurs des poudres et explosifs)
 * Corps of Military Telecom engineers (corps des ingénieurs des télécom militaires)
 * Corps of Armament Fabrications engineers (corps des ingénieurs des fabrications d'armement)

In 1743, the "Ecole des constructeurs de vaisseaux royaux" was created to train Naval engineers. This school is known today as ENSTA ParisTech.

Corps of Armament and High tech Colbertism
The role played by the Corps of Armament in the development of the French Aerospace & Defence industry in particular with the logic of Grands Projets (Concorde, Airbus, Ariane,...) can be compared with the role of the Corps des télécommunications in the development of the French telecom industry (telephone, Minitel,...) or the role of the Corps des mines or the Corps des ponts with their respective Grands Projets (Nuclear industry, TGV,...). They illustrate the Colbertism, a French version of Mercantilism.

French Colbertism is an old tradition dating back to the 17th century influenced at that time by the Chinese system. French high public servants are still nicknamed "mandarins" referring to their Chinese counterparts.

The French economist Elie Cohen described the effects of French Colbertism in the field of High tech in a renowned book entitled "High tech Colbertism - Economics of the Grand Projet" (1995).

High tech Colbertism can be characterized by a prevalent role played in France by the Administration and the Grand Corps. A typical Colbertist mechanism is the "pantouflage" where top civil servants become Heads of French public companies. The word "pantouflage" cannot be translated in English nor in any Western language but can be translated in Japanese where a comparable mechanism exists. The Japanese word is "amakudari" ("fallen from the sky").

Délégués généraux pour l'armement (directeurs généraux de l'armement)

 * Henri Martre: délégué général pour l'armement (1977-1983), CEO Aérospatiale (1983-1992)
 * Yves Sillard Director general of CNES (1976-1982), CEO IFREMER (1982-1989), délégué général pour l'armement (1989-1993)

Heads of other Public bodies

 * Frédéric van Roekeghem directeur de l'assurance maladie
 * Pierre-Henri Gourgeon former directeur général de l'aviation civile and Directeur général d'Air France
 * Alain Bugat headed the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (2003-2009)

Top industrialists

 * Jean-Paul Herteman (CEO Safran, Chairman of GIFAS, Vice Chairman of Conseil général de l'armement)
 * Marwan Lahoud (Head of EADS France, former CEO of MBDA)
 * Henri Martre: Délégué général pour l'armement (1977-1983), CEO Aérospatiale (1983-1992)
 * Serge Dassault CEO of Dassault Aviation

Aerospace engineers

 * René Audran Director of International Affairs at DGA, assassinated by Action directe in 1985
 * Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry Famous for attempting to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle in 1962.
 * Roger Béteille One of the founders of Airbus
 * Jean-François Clervoy (astronaut)
 * François Hussenot
 * Henri Ziegler (One of the founders of Airbus)

Naval, nuclear & telecom engineers

 * Louis-Émile Bertin
 * Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot
 * Robert Ranquet
 * Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières
 * Serge Tchuruk