Explosions, then the crackle of gunfire. On a plain in Belgium, on a cold and damp morning, the camp occupied by the 4th company of the 152nd infantry regiment of the French army has just been targeted. No time to lose: two batteries of mortars deploy, in just a few minutes, then retaliate, in the smell of gunpowder. Wounded are evacuated after tourniquet with, on their forehead, written in pen, the time of the first treatment – crucial information for the medical section, called to take over.
However, no blood has flowed and the weapons are firing blanks. If the reflexes in the face of the threat are well anchored, the attack is fictitious. The “Quinze-deux” is taking part, in the last days of November, in a joint exercise with the Belgian army, called Celtic Uprise, which L’Express was able to film. Objective: to strengthen interoperability with its partner in the Atlantic Alliance and to harden before a projection in February in Romania, another member of NATO. It’s been a year since France deployed a battalion there, as part of a reinforcement of its presence, on the eastern flank of Europe, in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine.
From his command post, in a tent on the muddy ground, Captain Blaise coordinates the action of his troops (200 soldiers in total). “Today, we are conducting a counter-insurgency operation, explains the commander of the 4th company of the 152nd regiment. We are going to try to slow down the enemy force on our territory to take them to the Meuse and stop them there.” On a screen, he can follow the movement of the different sections in real time, thanks to a geolocation system. Added to this, over the information collected, those of the enemy force, embodied by Belgian troops.
To carry out this mission, it is already necessary to remove the threat weighing on the camp. About twenty soldiers quickly intervened in the area where the fire started, in a nearby wood, crossing a field with overturned earth. They do not flush out enemies there, but the essential is elsewhere: to achieve optimal coordination and responsiveness. Already, at the end of September, the 4th company was at the Training Center for Actions in Urban Zones (CENZUB), in the Aisne, to practice confrontation in the city. She must also conduct a new hardening exercise in the Vosges next week, before leaving for the Cincu base in central Romania.
This will be the first deployment of Lieutenant Théo, 27, who arrived at the 152nd regiment last summer, lucid about the slim probability of real combat. “It is above all an operation of support, reinforcement and solidarity in a new theater, which is not at war, different from the African theater”, explains this graduate of the military academy of Saint-Cyr. At a time when the Barkhane operation to fight – asymmetrically – against armed groups in the Sahel is coming to an end, the French army is refocusing on Europe and preparing for a high-intensity conflict, i.e. confrontation with a symmetrical adversary , such as Russia.
The relief ensured by the soldiers of the 4th company of the 152nd regiment is part of the Aigle mission. On the Cincu base (700 soldiers deployed in December for a target of 1,200 in 2023), they will have the opportunity to train at high intensity, with other companies, including the operators of 13 Leclerc tanks who arrived at the end of November, as well as Allied troops. They will not only be Romanian: France is the framework nation for NATO’s forward presence battle group in Romania. And, as such, she oversees a contingent of Dutch soldiers, alternating with Belgian troops. Enough to deepen the automatisms of cooperation worked during Celtic Uprise.
