PART TIME FORCES

World over, the current international military trend is to develop the Reserve Force (active part-time components). Fulltime professional forces are becoming prohibitively expensive and the swing is towards part-time elements with professional standards. These formations can, with training and motivation, be honed to a very high standard and it is not unknown for the part-time components to achieve the highest obtainable level during training exercises. Rising Defence costs have resulted in more attention being given to the part-time forces, and in this respect it is interesting to note that the 600 000 members of the US Army Reserve, which provides 24 per cent of the ‘Total Army’ absorbs just slightly more than four per cent of the Army’s budget

French Part-Time Forces: More than Two Thousand Officers are Staff Qualified

The French have a unique system which enables them to sort out the goats from the sheep before their conscripts begin their 10 month period of military service. The conscripts have the opportunity, after they have passed the military medical inspection and psychological test, of volunteering for a 15 day Military Preparation (PMT) period. This PMT can prepare the volunteer for admission for NCO training and after 5 months conscript training, he can become a sergeant. Likewise the pre-training period can prepare a volunteer after 12 days and four jumps for enlistment as a recruit in a para-troop regiment.
The system that provides the French Army with its Officers Corps Reserve Officers works on a different system. The Superior Military Preparation (PMS) consists of a 30 day pre-military service volunteer period. The PMS is open to volunteers who have obtained their ’baccalaureate’ and consists of intensive military training. If satisfactory completed, the conscript is considered to have the potential of becoming an officer and is inducted for officer training.
Both successful PMT and PMS candidates are allowed to choose their branch of the service and there are other benefits that they are entitled to, such as extended periods of service and becoming a permanent force member.
The French Table of Battle requires that a maximum of 300,000 Reservists will be activated and it is interesting to note that in nineties the French Defence Ministry launched a publicity campaign to inform the public of the country’s need and the value of the Reservists with the slogan – “Reservists – the spirit of liberty”.
To encourage the “one force” attitude,more than 1,000 cadet reserve officers are trained each year, together with their professional counterparts at the Military Academy Saint-Cyr. The French require that there is a very high degree of mutual understanding and respect between the fulltime and part-time officers and do everything to foster cross-pollination.
In the French Army there are over 2,000 Reservists filling posts on the Staff with an annual intake of approximately 12. To qualify, a French Reservists has to undertake two years of study by attending a four-hour lecture session every second week for two years followed by a three-week course at the Paris Military School, the Headquarters of CRSEM.

This high degree of military education prepares the Reservists to serve together with their fulltime colleagues and serves as a link between the two cultures the –civilian and the military. Experience over the years has shown that, similar to the Swiss system, the senior Reserve Officer generally holds a position of authority and respect in the civil environment.

Picture: Lt Sanjeev Kaura,social worker/politician/part time officer, Indian Territorial Army.

(Concept: Maj Surender Singh / Graphics: Samson Robert)