On 12-13 February in Grenoble with the French Army 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade, in cooperation with COGES Events, the company responsible for the well-known Eurosatory exhibition, organised the 1st International Mountain Troops Summit, the French acronym being SITM
The aim of the 1st SITM was to be an exchange forum among units of different countries that operate in mountainous and cold-weather areas, discussions also including industry, which can propose technological bricks to solve issues linked to mountainous terrain and cold weather.
Compared to other mountain units, the 27 BIM, the French acronym for the Brigade, is not only looking at cold mountain scenarios; thanks to numerous bilateral agreements on defence inked by France with numerous allies, French soldiers belonging to Brigade units often deploy in mountainous areas in north Africa and the Middle East to share their experience with their local equivalents. This is definitely a peculiarity among western mountain units.
That said, the cold was the key subject, the increasing strategic importance of the Arctic region making the cold weather capacity a common denominator among Western armies. European armies, from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, and Switzerland, all have mountain troops. Specialised units dealing with mountain and cold weather scenarios can also be found overseas, in north and south America, not to mention India and Pakistan that have been fighting a glacier war for decades.
Providing a strategic vision, Lieutenant General Bertrand Toujouse, the French Land Forces Commander, COMFOT in French acronym, underlined the new situation that sees the opponents engaged, in mounting order, in competition, contestation, and confrontation, where the strength of western armies is what would avoid the enemy from going beyond the contestation threshold, the concept of enemy, which faded after the end of the Cold War, being now back. Coalition operations were highlighted by the French officer; “In most cases, we will have French formations under the orders of foreign units, or foreign formations under the orders of French units.”
He also stressed that for France the manoeuvre unit remains the Brigade, other nations considering the Division, if not even the Corps. That said, it often happens that units of the same level are not comparable, the French 27 BIM having around 7,500 personnel, while in many other countries a Brigade-level unit is around 3,000-3,500.
Underlining that during the ISAF operation the French Army deployed 27 BIM units in Afghanistan in wintertime, the Grenoble headquartered unit and the 11 Parachute Brigade, 11e BP in French, are the two light intervention brigades, easily deployable by air transport. They are complementary, and every year one is dedicated to Europe and the other one to the rest of the world, the role switching every single year.
The 27 BIM is of course the “cold weather unit” of the French Army, however the great north is becoming a major issue. According to the latest information, NATO JFC Norfolk would be redesignated “JFC West,” with geographic responsibility for the North Atlantic up to the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap, while a “JFC North” should be established, that would cope with the European Nordic region, which encompasses 3,425,804 km2, larger than the territory of all other European allies combined. JFC West would be commanded by a US four-star Admiral, with three-star UK and French officers as deputy and chief of staff. As for JFC North, it should be headquartered in Norway or Sweden, and should be commanded by a Swedish four-star, with rotating Finnish and Norwegian three-star deputies and a Danish chief of staff.
In the view of the French defence top brass the renewed importance of the far north, with its cold and extreme cold weather constraints, means that the 27 BIM should not be the only cold weather hardened unit, as these skills should be spread through several other brigades.
LTG Toujouse also underlined that the climatic change is modifying the overall situation. The Cold Weather Table defined within STANAG 2895 considers temperatures between -6°C and -57°C, however the lower temperatures are seldom seen nowadays even in the Arctic. That said, temperatures just below -15°C are well sufficient to generate major problems to human beings and equipment, and even higher temperatures, especially if coupled with high humidity, can cause issues if soldiers are exposed for long periods of time. This needs soldiers trained to operate in such climates, even if they are not mountain specialists, something, LTG Toujouse said, that French Army units knew in the Cold War era when the 2nd Corps was stationed in Germany. “The subject is how we re-appropriate the ability to fight in cold zones,” he said, adding that after 30 years of crisis management missions there is a huge delay in the army’s re-appropriation of cold weather expertise.
To solve this issue the French Land Forces Commander clearly stated that 27 BIM cold weather specialists will have to exploit their skills to train units belonging to the whole French Army, no question about this. The 27 BIM should however not forget the importance of hot weather mountains, as according to the General tomorrow crises may well generate in very mountainous areas not necessarily cold.
Coming to operational issues, “I campaigned strongly for the creation of a light infantry company to be deployed in Baltic countries, specialised in guerrilla combat in the enemy rear, in cold weather scenarios and in resulting terrains. I have no doubt that this is a real tactical reflection for the 27 BIM,” as well as for other nations units, LTG Bertrand Toujouse said, adding that, “The main logic when facing our adversaries is to dissuade them.” Ukrainian formations proved how effective can be fighting behind enemy lines, it contributed heavily to stop the main Russian offensive in 2022, and, “This guerrilla combat on the rear becomes a reality again. We had quite a few units dedicated to that in the Cold War era.” The General has no doubt that this is a subject that the two French Army light brigades, the 27 BIM and the 11 BP, should seriously consider. Acting in a much more flexible way, very much commando style, is what he expects from them, adding cold weather to the equation. “The first experiences of our light units deployed to Estonia for almost two years were extremely positive,” he underlined.
The second scenario that might await western armies peer-to-peer engagements is not necessarily linked to cold weather and is the urban area. “It is interesting to note that during the first year of the war between Ukraine and Russia, almost no city of 100,000 inhabitants fell, except Mariupol,” the General observed. However, in the last year of war cities of that size fell, after intense artillery firing. “What is interesting is that they fell with a force ratio of 1:1, while we were taught that to seize a town, we need a 6:1 ratio.” Something similar was also seen in the Middle East, where in the offensive against Daesh Iraqis conquered towns with a ratio of 2:1 or 3:1, employing dedicated specialised units.
“In my opinion the reappropriation of urban combat with decentralized, agile, commando actions is one of the major challenges that the 27 BIM and the 11 BP will face.” The General also stated that should an armoured brigade be committed to conquer a town, he does not see any problem in attaching to it a mountain infantry battalion to fight in the urban area. “This will constitute an elite unit that would pose a very difficult challenge to the enemy.”
French Army brigades rotate their areas of interest, doing for example one year in the European sector and one year in the Northern sector. “Back to the 27 BIM, it represents a very important strength for the Land Operational Forces, by its intrinsic qualities, by its capacities for innovation, and by its capacity to engage in difficult terrain,” the COMFOT stated. While in the past decades the tendency was to homogenise the Parachute Brigade, the Mountain Infantry Brigade, the Marine Infantry Brigade, and the Light Armoured Brigade, “now in the Army there is the desire for more pronounced differentiation than before,” the General said, highlighting that of course brigades have a 70-80% of common ground, while there is space for a 20 and more per cent for specialisation. “When you specialize, it is a matter of equipment, know-how, culture, and modes of action where, particularly in the context of military partnerships, you have exclusive relationships that cannot roam from one Brigade to another, as they are linked to the specialization of the Brigade. And this seems absolutely essential to me.”
In the new scenario, where escalation is the rule, “we must be much more engaged since now in the battles in which we may be engaged tomorrow. Which means that all our brigades’ staff must now think as an operations centre since peacetime, looking at their areas of responsibility, permanently monitoring the situation, gathering intelligence, in a real logic of a manoeuvre of influence. “Some of our brigades give each of their regiments a key zone to monitor on a daily basis, which allows the regiment to permanently acculturate itself to the potential employment scenarios they have in front of them.”
In conclusion the French COMFOT summed up his view in a few words, “Extreme cold, Guerrilla, and Urban zone.”
File photos courtesy 27 BIM