Air ‘strikes’, parachute drops… what you need to know about Orion 23, the giant French army exercise

Simulate a major conflict against an opposing state. The Orion 23 project was born in 2020, long before the war in Ukraine, and materialized from mid-February on the ground in the south of France. On an unprecedented scale, the gigantic exercise will mobilize a total of 12,000 soldiers during the first half of 2023. This will include the army’s new Griffon armored personnel carriers, Leclerc tanks, as well as ground defense systems, air, combat aircraft and the aircraft carrier Charles de Goll” and two landing helicopter carriers. We sum up.

Why this operation?

“In 2017, the (French) Strategic Review described the emergence of the prospect of a major conflict and the need to prepare for it. We must adapt our operational training and our application doctrine “after more than two decades of asymmetric warfare against jihadists,” General Yves Metayer, commander of the use of force unit at the General Staff, said last November.

As such, the Orion exercise aims to prepare “forces for the most difficult situations of modern battles and show that France has armies capable of conducting intense combat operations,” writes the Ministry of Defense on its website, for which “ accelerated deterioration of the international context in 2022”, confirms the relevance of the operation.

How are you?

Orion 23 has four phases.

• The first, “operational planning”, consisted in preparing for the operation.
• The second, called the “first record”, began in mid-February and will run until mid-March. “This is an air-sea campaign of the first exit to a well-defended area,” the Ministry of Defense summarizes.
• Then there will be the third stage, “military-civilian work”, i.e., interdepartmental work.
• Phase 4, the most important one, called “major operation”, will then simulate a major air-ground collision.

What does the phase that began in mid-February consist of?

Until mid-March, 7,000 soldiers are involved in a sequence that includes naval operations in the Mediterranean, an amphibious operation and then an airborne phase in southern France. We are talking about an imitation of intervention in a fictional country – “Arnland”, destabilized by militias, bordering on a powerful state – “Mercury” – organizing these troubles and equipped with nuclear weapons. The French soldiers would have to turn quickly into this hostile territory and establish a bridgehead at Sète.

A thousand French soldiers are pretending to be enemies, Le Point says. They are opposed by forces led by the French, which include allies – American pilots, British soldiers and units of seven other European navies, the weekly specifies. The program includes landing, imitation of air strikes and landings.

Last Saturday a dozen naval commandos were parachuted into the sea near Toulon. The amphibious landing will take place on Sunday in the port of Sète and in Frontignan, Midi libre points out. The security and capture operation will be carried out until March 2 around Set. A second landing is scheduled for Friday, March 3, again in the port of Sète, before the armed forces move to Castres, the regional newspaper continues.

What’s next on the schedule?

At the end of March, under the auspices of the General Secretariat of Defense and National Security (SGDSN), the civil-military phase will be organized. Particular attention will be paid to various means of civilian support for the armed forces in the event of a major battle (medical, transport, etc.), reserves and information warfare.

Finally, from mid-April to early May, the armies will simulate a high-intensity air-ground confrontation against the neighboring state of “Mercury” with the deployment of 10 to 12,000 soldiers in the north-east of France.