The catalyst of the 1st International Mountain Troops Summit was definitely the French Army 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade, which inherits the traditions of the mountain units of the Armée de Terre. In the post WW II period, the French Army order of battle had two Alpine Brigades, the 17th and 27th, which in 1976 were merged into the 27th Alpine Division, which in 1983 became part of the Force d’Action Rapide (FAR), the French quick reaction force. Following the end of the Cold War, as part of the “dividend of peace” reductions, in 1999 the 27th DA was reduced to a brigade-size formation, becoming what is today the 27e BIM, in French Army jargon
The 27 BIM has a strength of around 7,500 soldiers, nine units depending from the Brigade HQ which is located in Grenoble and operates under the 1st French Army Division. The High Mountain Military School, EMHM in French acronym, is responsible for mountain military training for Brigade, French Army, French armed forces, and international partners. Another element tasked for training Army personnel in mountain operations is the GAM, the mountain hardening group. Switching to operational units, the 27e BIM field three mountain infantry battalions, the 7e, 27e and 13eBCA, the 4e light armoured regiment, the 4 RCh, and the 93rd mountain artillery regiment, the 93e RAM.
During SITM 2025 EDR On-Line met Brigadier General Lionel Catar, the Brigade Commander, who is not only in charge of operational issues.
“I am also responsible for drafting doctrine and regulations related to cold weather issues, that are distributed throughout the French Army. At the 27e BIM we really push activities to what we define as extreme cold, under -20°C, where degrees and to operate, move and fight remains the business of very specialized units, that allow us to acquire skills and pass them to others. These are the EMHM, an elite group in search of the extreme, and the GAM.
As said by the COMFOT, cold weather skills must be distributed through the whole Army, the 27e BIM being the unit responsible for spreading the word through the other arms. “The Brigade units have been often engaged in Africa, as most of other Army units, but nevertheless when they were back in the Alps, they always trained in their core element, and with the agreement of the Army Staff we maintained and improved our special equipment adapted to extreme cold,” BG Catar tells EDR On-Line. Talking of training units that are not part of his Brigade, he adds, “This year we have set up a cold zone train-the-trainer course for all arms; they need it because in extreme cold you do not maintain your weaponry, your equipment, your vehicle, in the same way whether you are in moderate temperature. Front-line medical teams do not set up an IV at -20°C in the same way as when they are at room temperature.”
Versatility is the mantra at the 27e BIM; “In Scandinavia weather can vary a lot during winter. In those conditions the soldier must move, station, regain strength, use his weapons, and this induces reflections on the training, and we realize that when we reach this level it allows us to have very versatile units. Very cold conditions allow us to have more seasoned units, with higher esprit de corps, and therefore more ready to deal with what they might face in a period of conflict. An example of their versatility is that today I have soldiers engaged in Guyana.”
Hot climate is something well known to the soldiers that wear the “tarte”, the huge beret typical of French mountain troops. “Speaking with my Italian friends,” BG Catar says, “we have found that finally the French are the only ones who look at the mountains in hot climates. Our units have always done rotations in Djibouti, and now, thanks to France special relationships with Morocco, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, we yearly deploy units in those countries.” French units bringing their skills to their counterparts and gaining hot weather mountaineering skills in return. “Training in hot mountains is very tough,” the Brigade Commander underlines, “even if it is the cold weather that dictates the choice for individual and mobility equipment.”
Part of NATO, France provides its units experience to the Alliance centres of excellence and gets in return the results of shared experiences among NATO members in specific areas. Mountain and cold weather are not an exception. The Atlantic Alliance has two centres of excellence related to the 27e BIM peculiarities, the Mountain Warfare CeO in Slovenia and the Cold Weather Operations CeO in Norway. “One of the purposes of those centres is to produce elements of doctrine. We already have doctrinal building blocks at national level, which we shared with these centres of excellence, and the documents that come out with the NATO label, taking into consideration mostly French, German, Italian, Slovenian and Spanish contributions, are looked at by all NATO nations.” The French Brigade has regular relations with those centres, and in Grenoble the Slovenian commander of the Mountain Warfare CeO was among the speakers.
“There is also a less known thing, the European Union Mountain Training Initiative that is currently under the Austrian lead. Last autumn it allowed to bring together in Grenoble those units interested in mountain and extreme cold issues, and we also have a European forum around those issues,” BG Catar points out.
With the Alps in common, contacts are pretty easy between the French and Italian mountain brigades. “We cooperate regularly, there are joint exercises and training sessions. Last year in Corsica during our ‘Cerces 2024’ exercise an Italian mountain artillery battery fired with French JTACS, under Frenc command, and the contrary is also true, there is great interoperability with regular exchanges at section and company level. At staff level it was impossible to exchange personnel in Afghanistan as we were deployed in opposite areas, the Italians in the west and us in the east. We exchanged a group of staff officers in Lebanon, as we are both part of the UNIFIL 2 mission. As for 2026 we plan a very strong interaction between the Italian Alpini and the French Chasseurs de Montagne during “Nordic Response 26”.
Mobility, communications, resupply, several things become more complex in a compartmented scenario such as that of high mountains, extreme cold adding further complexity. Some areas technology might help.
“One of the areas we are considering is that of transport drones; mountain warfare is still very much a sherpa business, we must transport supplies in altitude. Carrying ammunition and other supplies involves vehicles, animals, and of course manpower. We can often have two or three logisticians for every single fighter,” the 27e BIM Commander underlines. Transport drones might ease the logistic burden, carrying forward ammunition, batteries, fuel, food, and other supplies needed on the frontline, and in due time they will probably be able to bring back casualties. Of course, surveillance and intelligence gathering is another vital role that can be performed by UAVs.
“We are also looking with interest to the advent of electric power in mobility,” the General says. And this not only for their silent move, but also for their capacity to produce energy that can be used to reload batteries, which are greatly used by soldiers for all kinds of systems, from radios to night vision goggles, to targeting devices and so on. Some innovative ways of producing energy could be seen at the Brigade Signal Company static exhibition.
Individual equipment is another key issue when thinking cold and extreme cold. “Usually, soldier’s equipment starts with the validation by the 27e BIM; therefore most combat boots, technical jackets that are currently in service in all French Army Land Operational Force units were validated by us.” And some of them are validated by the GHMH during their yearly raid in Greenland.
File photos courtesy 27e BIM