Unquestionably, remote operation is in the limelight

摘要

Why a new exhibition for Special Forces, after SOFIC in the United States and SOFEX in the UAE? Col. Rapp: In 2011 the EDEN cluster wanted to create a small show in the Lyon area. General Gomart, who was head of the COS at the time, was immediately attracted by the idea put forward by one of his personnel who wanted to give it more scope. He proposed to concentrate technologies, industry and users in one place over three days. The aim was to cover specific themes through small seminars, to test the equipment on site, and above all to present the specific operating methods of the Special Forces, which operate in small numbers deep behind enemy lines and most of the time in complete autonomy. Flexible, fast and manoeuvrable, their aim is to provoke strategic effects on the enemy. Finally, the goal was also to correct the often distorted vision that sometimes exists in the regular army on our real resources and associated needs. At the time, I was in charge of the Bureau Etudes Prospectives, and we had three months from December 2012 to set up the show from scratch, just as the conflict in Mali was beginning… so it was indeed a COS operation (he smiles). This idea coming from the "base" is also typical of the Special Forces, the COS has pushed its personnel to be creative from the outset.