France's War in Mali: Lessons for an Expeditionary Army

Abstract

In 2013, just as U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno was articulating a particular vision for expeditionary operations, the French Army was fielding a force in Mali that in many ways provided a real-world example of the kind of operations Odierno envisioned. France fielded a relatively small force put together using small, scalable combined arms task-organized units as basic building blocks and conducted a campaign that emphasized speed and maneuver over force protection. The French force, moreover, is for all intents and purposes regionally aligned, and it demonstrated the benefits that could accrue through its apparently effective operations among and with local and regional actors. The French also have a force structure well suited to expeditionary operations in austere environments, as well as an expeditionary institutional culture.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2014
Accession Number
ADA611637

Entities

People

  • Michael Shurkin

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anti-Tank Missiles
  • Armored Personnel Carriers
  • Armored Vehicles
  • Combat Areas
  • Combat Vehicles
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Conventional Warfare
  • Deployment
  • Fire Support
  • Governments
  • International Organizations
  • Man Borne Improvised Explosive Devices
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • Terrorists
  • Warfare
  • Weapons Effects

Readers

  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.