French Army Light Aviation
The Aviation légère de l’Armée de terre is the largest army aviation in Western Europe and the one with the freshest combat experience: about 280 helicopters and fourteen light aeroplanes, two-thirds of every rotary-wing aircraft the French armed forces own, and nine unbroken years of shooting over the Sahel between 2013 and 2022 — a campaign that cost it more lives than any other French air arm has lost since Algeria. It is also in the middle of the most disruptive re-equipment in its history. The Gazelle that should have left in the 2010s is now supported to 2039, the H160M Guépard meant to replace it will not arrive in numbers before 2030, and the Tigre mid-life upgrade has been cut back twice.
The French Army Light Aviation story: two-thirds of France’s helicopters, nine years of the Sahel, and a fleet caught between generations
1794–1954: balloons, artillery spotters and the birth of an army air arm
The ALAT dates its own lineage to the compagnie d’aérostiers of 1794 — the balloon company of the revolutionary army, the first military air unit anywhere — and it is not being sentimental. The point of that unit was to look over the hill for the artillery, and that is what the ALAT was created to do a hundred and sixty years later. After the Armée de l’air became a separate service in 1934, the army quietly rebuilt its own eyes: groupes d’observation d’artillerie from 1937, then the groupes aériens d’observation d’artillerie that flew light aeroplanes over Indochina after 1945. A decree of 3 March 1952 created the aviation légère d’observation d’artillerie (ALOA), the army took command of all its units on 30 June 1953, and on 22 November 1954 the arm took the name it still carries: aviation légère de l’Armée de terre. It remained formally a part of the artillery for another half-century; only the decree of 1 July 2003, effective 7 October 2003, made the ALAT an arm of the French army in its own right.
1954–1962: Algeria, and the invention of the helicopter assault
Algeria made it. The ALAT went into that war with Piper L-18s, Cessna L-19 Bird Dogs, Nord 3400 Norbarbes and a few Bell 47s; it came out of it with the helicopter assault. By 1960 the arm had nearly 700 light aircraft, took delivery of 229 Alouette IIs, and flew the Vertol H-21 “Banane”, the Sikorsky H-19 and the Sikorsky H-34 — the last of these built under licence by Sud-Aviation and armed, in the field, with side-firing cannon and machine guns. French crews worked out how to put an infantry company on a ridge line in one lift, how to escort the transports with armed helicopters, and how to pull the wounded out of a djebel in minutes rather than days. Those tactics went round the world; the Americans learned them before Vietnam. The arm’s standard carries one battle honour and only one, “AFN 1952-1962”, and its aircrew have worn the royal-blue beret since 1957.
1962–1990: the anti-tank years and the 4e division aéromobile
From 1962 the ALAT spread across metropolitan France and turned north-east. The threat was Warsaw Pact armour, and the answer was the anti-tank helicopter: the SA 341 Gazelle from the 1970s, then the SA 342M with the HOT missile from 1978 and, later, the Viviane thermal sight that let it fight at night. Régiments d’hélicoptères de combat appeared in 1977. In the early 1980s France went further than anyone else in Europe and built a whole division around them — the 4e division aéromobile of 1985, with three combat helicopter regiments, a command-and-manoeuvre regiment and a support regiment, plus one RHC for each of the three corps. At its height the arm had roughly 360 light helicopters, 180 anti-tank machines and 140 Puma transports, and flew 170,000 hours a year. Nothing on that scale exists in Western Europe now, including in France.
1991–2011: Daguet, the Balkans, Afghanistan and a helicopter war fought from the sea
Then came the expeditions. Opération Daguet in 1990–91 put 132 ALAT helicopters into Saudi Arabia — 88 Gazelle and 38 Puma — the second-largest air-mobile force in the coalition and still, thirty-five years later, the biggest French helicopter deployment ever mounted. The Balkans followed, then Ivory Coast, then Afghanistan, where three Tigre of the 5e RHC arrived at Kabul on 26 July 2009 and gave the type its first combat. The most striking of these was Libya. In June 2011 the ALAT put a helicopter battle group aboard the amphibious ships Tonnerre and Mistral and attacked from the sea at night: around forty raids, roughly 450 targets destroyed, 432 HOT missiles fired by Gazelles and about 1,500 rockets by Tigres, which amounted to some 90 per cent of all coalition helicopter strikes in the campaign. Not a French helicopter or crew was lost.
2013–2022: the Sahel — nine years of combat and thirteen dead in one night
The Sahel was longer and far costlier. On 11 January 2013, the first day of Opération Serval, Gazelles of the 4e régiment d’hélicoptères des forces spéciales attacked a jihadist column driving on Konna; ground fire killed the pilot, Damien Boiteux, the first French death of the campaign. For the next nine years, through Serval and then Barkhane, Tigre and Caiman crews flew almost continuously over Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, usually at night, usually a very long way from help. Fifty-eight French service personnel died in the Sahel between 2013 and 2022. Thirteen of them died in a single night: on 25 November 2019, during Opération Bourgou IV in the Eranga valley south of Indelimane, a Tigre and a Cougar of the 5e RHC collided in the dark while manoeuvring to engage. It was the heaviest French military loss in one day since the Drakkar bombing in Beirut in 1983, and it fell almost entirely on one regiment at Pau.
2023–2026: Metz, the Guépard, and a Tigre upgrade that keeps shrinking
The ALAT of 2026 is a service in transition and short of margin. Its headquarters left Vélizy-Villacoublay on 1 August 2025 after fifty-eight years and moved to the caserne Ney at Metz. Its Gazelles, first flown in 1971, are contracted for support out to 2039 because nothing else can do what they do cheaply. The H160M Guépard, ordered for 80 aircraft, is now expected to deliver at least five before 2030 rather than the twenty once planned, and the army has begun studying an anti-tank missile for it because the Gazelle it replaces carries one. The Tigre programme has gone the other way: a Franco-Spanish Mk3 upgrade launched on 2 March 2022 for 42 aircraft, suspended by the army chief of staff in May 2023, replaced by a lighter RMV whose prototype was still to fly in 2026, and now planned to touch about fourteen of the 67 Tigres by 2035 with a review in 2028. What is arriving is the NH90: the first Caiman Standard 2 for the special forces was handed over on 30 July 2026, the first of eighteen due by spring 2029.
The French Army Light Aviation in numbers
Service
- Native name
- Aviation légère de l’Armée de terreUsually just “l’ALAT”. Its people call themselves aérocombattants — air-combatants — which is also the title of the arm’s song, adopted in 2017.
- Founded
- 22 November 1954The aviation légère d’observation d’artillerie (ALOA) was created by decree on 3 March 1952 and the army took command of all its units on 30 June 1953; the ALAT name dates from 22 November 1954. It became an arm of the French army in its own right, rather than a branch of the artillery, on 7 October 2003.
- Part of
- Armée de terreNot an air force. The ALAT is one of the arms of the French army, alongside the infantry, the cavalry, the artillery and the engineers. The Armée de l’air et de l’espace and the Aéronautique navale fly their own aircraft.
- Headquarters
- Caserne Ney, MetzThe command moved from base aérienne 107 Vélizy-Villacoublay to Metz on 1 August 2025, after fifty-eight years outside Paris. About 145 military and civilian staff went with it.
- Main formations
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- 4e brigade d’aérocombat (air-combat brigade), Clermont-Ferrand — three combat helicopter regiments and the support regiment
- 4e régiment d’hélicoptères des forces spéciales, Pau-Uzein — under the army special operations command
- École de l’aviation légère de l’Armée de terre (EALAT), Le Cannet-des-Maures and Dax
- GAMSTAT, Valence-Chabeuil — the arm’s trials and evaluation group
- Groupe interarmées d’hélicoptères (GIH), Villacoublay — counter-terrorism helicopters for the GIGN and RAID
The 4e BAC was re-raised in July 2016 after the disbandment of the 4e brigade aéromobile in 2010.
- Commander
- Général de brigade Fabrice TalaricoCOM ALAT since 1 August 2026, and commander of the Metz-Verdun defence base. He succeeded Général de division David Cruzille, who held the post from 1 August 2024 and oversaw the move to Metz.
Strength
- Personnel
- about 4,600Plus roughly a thousand operational reservists, according to the outgoing COM ALAT in August 2025. About half the strength are maintainers — the arm insists that is the number that decides how much it can fly.
- Aircraft
- about 294The COM ALAT gave 280 helicopters and 14 aeroplanes in August 2025. The ministry’s Chiffres clés de la Défense 2026 lists 275 army helicopters and 14 fixed-wing aircraft at 31 December 2025, against 261 and 14 a year earlier; on top of that sit the 36 EC120 Colibri trainers at Dax, which are contractor-owned and therefore outside the organic inventory. Treat the total as 289–295 depending on what you count.
- Share of French military helicopters
- about two-thirdsThe army’s own figure: it operates two-thirds of the armed forces’ rotary-wing aircraft and more than half of every helicopter the French state owns, counting the Sécurité civile, the Gendarmerie and the Douane.
- Combat helicopters
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- 67 Airbus Helicopters EC665 Tigre
- 80 Sud-Aviation SA 342 Gazelle, most with the HOT missile or the 20 mm gun
Figures from the Chiffres clés de la Défense 2026, at 31 December 2025. Only about fourteen of the Tigres are planned to reach the modernised Mk2+ standard by 2035.
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Chiffres clés de la Défense 2026, at 31 December 2025. Four Caiman replaced the last Puma of the Djibouti detachment from 1 June 2025.
- Fixed-wing
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- 9 Socata TBM 700 liaison aircraft, Rennes Saint-Jacques
- 5 Pilatus PC-6/B2-H4 Turbo Porter, Montauban
The whole fixed-wing fleet of the French army. The PC-6s are used for parachute training and for light transport into short strips; two of them spent years working out of Gao during Barkhane.
Infrastructure
- Flying garrisons in France
- eightPhalsbourg, Étain-Rouvres, Pau-Uzein, Le Cannet-des-Maures, Dax, Montauban, Valence-Chabeuil and Rennes Saint-Jacques, plus the GIH at Villacoublay. Three of them — Phalsbourg, Étain and Villacoublay — are former USAFE or air force bases.
- Overseas
- DjiboutiThe detachment at base aérienne 188 Djibouti is the ALAT’s only permanent overseas flying unit, and now flies four NH90 Caiman. Regiments also rotate detachments to the Antilles, Guyane and the Indian Ocean.
- Training
- Le Cannet-des-Maures and DaxThe EALAT trains every French army pilot at the base école Général Lejay at Le Cannet-des-Maures (Tigre, Caiman, tactics) and the base école Général Navelet at Dax (ab initio). The Franco-German Tigre aircrew school is at Le Cannet-des-Maures and the Franco-German Tigre maintenance school at Fassberg in Germany.
How the French Army Light Aviation is organised
One command at Metz, one air-combat brigade at Clermont-Ferrand, four flying regiments and two school sites. The unusual one is the 4e RHFS at Pau — it belongs to the special operations command, not to the brigade, and it is the regiment that fires first.
Commandement de l’aviation légère de l’Armée de terre
The arm’s headquarters: doctrine, training standards, airworthiness and the capability argument inside the army staff. About 145 military and civilian staff, at the caserne Ney since 1 August 2025.
4e brigade d’aérocombat
Re-raised on 5 July 2016 and owner of three of the four helicopter regiments plus the support regiment. Sits under the command for deep operations and intelligence.
1er régiment d’hélicoptères de combat
Attack, reconnaissance and assault on Tigre, NH90 Caiman and Gazelle, on the former American air base in the Moselle.
3e régiment d’hélicoptères de combat
The Meuse regiment, and the one expected to convert first to the H160M Guépard around 2030.
5e régiment d’hélicoptères de combat
The Pyrenean regiment: first to take the Tigre into combat in 2009, and the unit that lost thirteen soldiers in Mali on 25 November 2019.
4e régiment d’hélicoptères des forces spéciales
Under the army special operations command, not the brigade. Caracal, Cougar and, from 30 July 2026, the NH90 Caiman Standard 2.
9e régiment de soutien aéromobile
Deployable maintenance and logistics for the whole arm, plus the five Pilatus PC-6 — the army’s only tactical transport aeroplanes.
École de l’aviation légère de l’Armée de terre
Two sites: ab initio at the base école Général Navelet at Dax on a contractor-owned Colibri fleet, tactical and type conversion at the base école Général Lejay at Le Cannet-des-Maures.
École franco-allemande de formation des équipages Tigre
French and German Tigre crews trained on one site, with the companion Franco-German school for Tigre technical and logistic personnel at Fassberg in Germany.
Groupement aéromobilité de la section technique de l’Armée de terre
Operational trials, weapons clearance and tactics development for every ALAT type, and keeper of the standard of the disbanded 7e RHC.
Groupe avions de l’Armée de terre
The nine Socata TBM 700 that carry French army staff and urgent freight, reporting directly to the arm’s commander.
Groupe interarmées d’hélicoptères
Joint army and air force helicopters held at readiness to put the GIGN or the police RAID onto a target anywhere in France, under the special operations command.
Détachement ALAT des Forces françaises à Djibouti
The arm’s only permanent overseas flying unit, four NH90 Caiman since 2025, under the 5e régiment interarmes d’outre-mer.
What the French Army Light Aviation flies today
Every type on charge, linked to its Book of Beasts page where one exists. Counts are aircraft on the books, not aircraft available on a given day.
| Type | Role | In service | Since | Units | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus Helicopters EC665 Tigre HAD/HAPIn service | Attack and armed reconnaissance helicopter | 67 | 2005 | — | 67 in the Chiffres clés de la défense 2025.
MoreThe original requirement was 80; the delivered fleet settled at 67 in two standards, the HAP gun-and-rocket version and the HAD with the Hellfire II missile and an uprated engine. |
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| NHIndustries NH90 Caiman TTHIn service | Tactical transport and assault helicopter | 63 | 2011 | — | 63 in the Chiffres clés de la défense 2025. French Wikipedia’s inventory at 31 December 2025 gives 63 TTH plus 18 of the special-forces standard, which is the order, not the delivered fleet. | |
| NHIndustries NH90 Caiman Standard 2 (Forces Spéciales)In service | Special forces assault helicopter | 1 | 2026 | — | The first aircraft was delivered on 30 July 2026; eighteen are on order with deliveries running to spring 2029. | |
| Sud-Aviation SA 342M/SA 342M1 GazelleIn service | Anti-tank, armed reconnaissance and fire support | 80 | 1973 | — | 80 in the Chiffres clés de la défense 2025, across the surviving marks: the SA 342M with HOT missiles and the Viviane thermal sight, the SA 342M1 of the NumALAT upgrade with a 7.62 mm minigun, and the gun and Mistral variants. | |
| Airbus Helicopters AS532 UL CougarIn service | Medium transport and command helicopter | 24 | 1990 | — | 24 in the Chiffres clés de la défense 2025, split between the combat helicopter regiments and the special forces regiment. | |
| Airbus Helicopters H225M CaracalIn service | Special forces transport and long-range infiltration | 8 | 2006 | — | 8 in the Chiffres clés de la défense 2025, all with the 4e RHFS at Pau. The Armée de l’air et de l’espace flies its own separate Caracal fleet at Cazaux. | |
| Sud-Aviation SA 330B/Ba PumaIn service | Medium transport helicopter | 15 | 1969 | — | 19 in the Chiffres clés de la défense 2025, down from 52 in 2019 and 130 at the peak in the 1970s. Retirement is programmed across the second half of the 2020s. | |
| Airbus Helicopters AS555 UN FennecIn service | Advanced and tactical training helicopter | 18 | 1990 | — | 18 in the Chiffres clés de la défense 2025, listed there as part of the externalised training fleet. | |
| Airbus Helicopters EC120 ColibriIn service | Ab initio training helicopter | 36 | 2010 | — | 36 aircraft, owned and maintained by the private operator Hélidax rather than by the army, which is why they do not appear in the ministry’s own inventory table. | |
| Socata TBM 700In service | Liaison and staff transport | 9 | 1992 | — | 9 in the Chiffres clés de la défense 2025, flown by the Groupe avions de l’Armée de terre at Rennes Saint-Jacques. | |
| Pilatus PC-6/B2-H4 Turbo PorterIn service | Short-field light transport and parachute dropping | 5 | 1968 | — | 5 in the Chiffres clés de la défense 2025, flown by the 9e régiment de soutien aéromobile at Montauban. | |
| Airbus Helicopters H160M GuépardIn service | Light joint helicopter: reconnaissance, light assault and liaison | 0 | — | None delivered. Eighty are planned for the army out of 169 for the three services under the hélicoptère interarmées léger programme.
MoreIn June 2026 the army told parliament to expect at least five before 2030, against the twenty once planned. |
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| Safran PatrollerIn service | Tactical reconnaissance drone | — | 2023 | — | Not an ALAT aircraft. The Patroller is flown by the 61e régiment d’artillerie, the army’s imagery reconnaissance regiment, not by the light aviation.
MoreThe minister confirmed the delivery of 28 air vehicles in May 2023. |
On order
| Type | Ordered | First delivery | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus Helicopters H160M GuépardOn order | 80 | 2028 | Eighty for the Armée de terre out of 169 for the three services.
MoreThe army expects at least five before 2030 — the earlier plan was twenty — and the 3e RHC at Étain-Rouvres is to be the first regiment to convert, around 2030. Studies are running on fitting an anti-tank missile, probably the MBDA Akeron LP, because the Gazelle the Guépard replaces carries the HOT. |
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| NHIndustries NH90 Caiman Standard 2 (Forces Spéciales)On order | 17 | 2026 | The first was handed over by the DGA on 30 July 2026 and the last is due in spring 2029.
MoreAll go to the 4e régiment d’hélicoptères des forces spéciales at Pau and will progressively replace its Caracal and Cougar. |
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| Airbus Helicopters EC665 Tigre, mid-life renovationOn order | 14 | 2030 | What is left of the Tigre Mk3.
MoreOCCAR notified the Mk3 development contract to Airbus Helicopters on 2 March 2022 for 42 French aircraft out of the 67 the planning law had assumed, at a Franco-Spanish cost approaching four billion euros; the army chief of staff confirmed its suspension in May 2023. The surviving mid-life renovation was to fly its prototype during 2026, and in June 2026 the army told parliament that about fourteen aircraft would be modernised by 2035, with a decision point in 2028. Treat the quantity as provisional. |
Every type the French Army Light Aviation has retired
13 types, from the SNCAC NC.856 Norvigie to the Sud-Aviation SA 341F Gazelle. Peak figures are airframes taken on charge over the whole service life, not fleet strength on any one date.
| Type | Role | Peak | Served | Replaced by | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sud-Aviation SA 341F Gazelle | Armed reconnaissance and fire support | — | 1973–2010 | SA 342M Gazelle and EC665 Tigre | The first ALAT Gazelle mark, delivered from the early 1970s; 170 SA 341s were in service by the mid-1970s with 110 more on order. | |
| Sud-Aviation SA 316/SA 319 Alouette III | Light transport, liaison and anti-tank | 70 | 1963–2000 | SA 342 Gazelle | About 70 in ALAT service in the mid-1970s. | |
| Sud-Aviation SE 3130 Alouette II | Observation, liaison and casualty evacuation | 229 | 1957–1997 | AS350/AS555 Écureuil and Fennec | 229 delivered to the ALAT; 190 were still in service in the mid-1970s. | |
| Max Holste MH.1521 Broussard | Light liaison and utility transport | — | 1956–1987 | Socata TBM 700 | Exact ALAT quantity not published in a source we would cite; the great majority of the 300-odd built went to the Armée de l’air. | |
| Nord 3400 Norbarbe | Artillery observation and liaison | 150 | 1959–1980 | Helicopters | 150 delivered between 1959 and 1961. | |
| Sud-Aviation/Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw | Assault transport helicopter | — | 1957–1977 | SA 330 Puma | Numbers not published in a source we would cite. Built under licence in France by Sud-Aviation. | |
| Cessna L-19/O-1 Bird Dog | Artillery observation and liaison | — | 1953–1975 | Helicopters | Part of a light aeroplane fleet that reached about 695 aircraft in 1960; withdrawn through the 1960s and early 1970s. | |
| Piper L-18C Super Cub | Artillery observation and liaison | — | 1952–1975 | Helicopters | Exact ALAT quantity not published in a source we would cite; a residue of 24 Piper PA-22 was withdrawn in 1974–75. | |
| Bell 47G | Observation and casualty evacuation | — | 1953–1970 | Alouette II | Two were bought at the very start, one delivered to Satory and a second ordered from Agusta the following year; the fleet reached twelve helicopters in 1957. | |
| Piasecki/Vertol H-21C Shawnee | Assault transport helicopter | — | 1956–1966 | SA 330 Puma and Sikorsky H-34 | Exact ALAT quantity not published in a source we would cite. | |
| Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw | Light transport and casualty evacuation | — | 1955–1965 | Sikorsky H-34 | Exact ALAT quantity not published in a source we would cite. | |
| SNCAC NC.856 Norvigie | Artillery observation | — | 1951–1962 | Nord 3400 Norbarbe | Exact ALAT quantity not published in a source we would cite. | |
| Sud-Aviation SA 330 Puma (early marks) | Medium transport helicopter | 130 | 1969– | NH90 Caiman | 130 in service in the mid-1970s, against 19 left in 2025. |
Where the Aviation légère de l’Armée de terre flies from
Black pins are active garrisons, hollow pins the ones the army has given up. Three of the ALAT’s airfields were built by the United States Air Force in the 1950s and handed over when American forces left France in 1967. Two more are civil airports where the army rents a corner.
Metropolitan France
One of the 13 bases above sits outside metropolitan France, so the world map has to pull back until the home airfields cannot be told apart. The same pins again, without the overseas base.
| Base | ICAO | Status | Runway | Units and aircraft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clermont-FerrandPuy-de-Dôme | LFLC | Active | 08/263,015 m |
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| Dax – SeyresseLandes | LFBY | Active | 07/25800 m |
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| Djiboutibase aérienne 188Djibouti | HDAM | Active | 09/273,150 m |
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| Le Luc – Le Cannet-des-MauresVar | LFMC | Active | 09/271,399 m13/31799 m |
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| Metz, caserne NeyMoselle | Active | — |
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| Montaubanquartier capitaine VergnesTarn-et-Garonne | LFDB | Active | 13/31980 m |
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| Pau-UzeinPyrénées-Atlantiques | LFBP | Active | 13/312,500 m |
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| Phalsbourg-Bourscheidquartier La HorieMoselle | LFQP | Active | 06/242,202 mconcrete |
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| Rennes Saint-JacquesIlle-et-Vilaine | LFRN | Active | 10/282,100 m14/32820 m |
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| Valence-ChabeuilDrôme | LFLU | Active | 01/192,100 mconcrete01L/19R1,300 munpaved |
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| Vélizy-VillacoublayYvelines | LFPV | Active | 09/271,957 m |
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| Étain-RouvresMeuse | LFQE | Active | 01/191,721 mconcrete |
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| Margny-lès-Compiègnebase Général EstienneOise | LFAD | Closed 2007 | 05/23900 munpaved |
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No air base matches that search.
Who is stationed where in the French Army Light Aviation
Flying units by garrison, with the formation each belongs to. French army helicopter regiments carry numbers, not names, and four of them — the 2e, 4e, 6e and 7e — no longer exist.
- Commandement de l’aviation légère de l’Armée de terreCOM ALAT · Arm headquarters · active
- —
- 1er régiment d’hélicoptères de combat1er RHC · Combat helicopter regiment · active
- Airbus Helicopters EC665 Tigre, NHIndustries NH90 Caiman TTH, Sud-Aviation SA 342 Gazelle
- Caiman support centre, PhalsbourgType support centre · active
- —
- 3e régiment d’hélicoptères de combat3e RHC · Combat helicopter regiment · active
- Sud-Aviation SA 342 Gazelle, NHIndustries NH90 Caiman TTH, Airbus Helicopters EC665 Tigre
- 5e régiment d’hélicoptères de combat5e RHC · Combat helicopter regiment · active
- Airbus Helicopters EC665 Tigre, Airbus Helicopters AS532 Cougar, Sud-Aviation SA 342 Gazelle
- 4e régiment d’hélicoptères des forces spéciales4e RHFS · Special forces helicopter regiment · active
- Airbus Helicopters H225M Caracal, NHIndustries NH90 Caiman Standard 2, Sud-Aviation SA 342 Gazelle
- EALAT, base école Général LejayBAGL · Flying school · active
- Airbus Helicopters AS555 Fennec, Airbus Helicopters EC665 Tigre, NHIndustries NH90 Caiman TTH
- École franco-allemande de formation des équipages TigreEFA Tigre · Binational aircrew school · active
- Airbus Helicopters EC665 Tigre
- Centre de formation interarmées NH90CFIA NH90 · Joint type training centre · active
- NHIndustries NH90 Caiman
- EALAT, base école Général NaveletBAGN · Ab initio flying school · active
- Airbus Helicopters EC120 Colibri
- 9e régiment de soutien aéromobile9e RSAM · Air-mobile support regiment · active
- Pilatus PC-6/B2-H4 Turbo Porter
- Escadrille de transport et de convoyage de matérielETCM · Light transport flight · active
- Pilatus PC-6/B2-H4 Turbo Porter
- Groupement aéromobilité de la section technique de l’Armée de terreGAMSTAT · Trials and evaluation group · active
- Airbus Helicopters EC665 Tigre, NHIndustries NH90 Caiman TTH, Sud-Aviation SA 342 Gazelle
- Groupe avions de l’Armée de terreGAAT · Fixed-wing liaison group · active
- Socata TBM 700
- Groupe interarmées d’hélicoptèresGIH · Joint special operations helicopter group · active
- —
- Commandement de l’aviation légère de l’Armée de terre1967–2025
- —
- 4e brigade d’aérocombat4e BAC · Air-combat brigade headquarters · active
- —
- Détachement ALAT des Forces françaises à DjiboutiDETALAT FFDj · Overseas helicopter detachment · active
- NHIndustries NH90 Caiman TTH
No unit matches that search.
French Army Light Aviation milestones, 1914 to today
The compagnie d’aérostiers of the revolutionary army — balloons flown to spot for the guns — becomes the first military air unit in the world. The ALAT claims the lineage, and the reason is the mission, not the vanity: looking over the hill for the artillery is what the arm was created to do.
3 March: a decree creates the aviation légère d’observation d’artillerie (ALOA). On 30 June 1953 the army takes command of all ALOA formations and the corresponding air force elements are dissolved.
22 November: the aviation légère de l’Armée de terre is created. The first Bell 47G had reached Satory the previous year; by 1957 the fleet is twelve helicopters and the royal-blue beret has been adopted.
Algeria. The ALAT has some 695 light aeroplanes and is taking delivery of 229 Alouette IIs alongside American H-19, H-21 and H-34 transports. French crews invent the modern helicopter assault here, and the arm’s standard will carry one battle honour: “AFN 1952-1962”.
1 August: the régiments d’hélicoptères de combat appear, including the 6e RHC at Margny-lès-Compiègne. The Gazelle with the HOT missile arrives from 1978 and the ALAT becomes an anti-tank force aimed at the Warsaw Pact.
The 4e division aéromobile is formed — three combat helicopter regiments, a command and manoeuvre regiment and a support regiment, with a further RHC in each corps. At its height the arm flies about 360 light helicopters and 170,000 hours a year.
Opération Daguet. 132 ALAT helicopters deploy to Saudi Arabia, 88 Gazelle and 38 Puma, the second-largest air-mobile force in the coalition. Thirty-five years later it is still the biggest French helicopter deployment ever mounted.
7 October: the ALAT becomes an arm of the French army in its own right, no longer a branch of the artillery, under the decree of 1 July 2003.
The first EC665 Tigre reaches the ALAT after a long wait. The 40th Tigre HAP is delivered on 21 December 2012 and the first HAD is certified in January 2013.
1 July: the 6e RHC is disbanded at Margny-lès-Compiègne with 38 Gazelle and 8 Puma on strength, a month short of thirty years on the field. The ALAT’s garrison map has been shrinking ever since.
26 July: three Tigre of the 5e RHC arrive at Kabul aboard an Antonov 124 and join three Caracal and three Gazelle Viviane already there. It is the type’s first combat.
June: the ALAT fights a war from the sea. A helicopter battle group aboard the Tonnerre and the Mistral flies about forty night raids over Libya, destroying some 450 targets with 432 HOT missiles and roughly 1,500 rockets — about 90 per cent of all coalition helicopter strikes — without losing an aircraft or a crew.
11 January: on the first day of Opération Serval, Gazelles of the 4e RHFS attack a jihadist column driving on Konna. Ground fire kills the pilot, Damien Boiteux — the first French death of the campaign.
25 November: a Tigre and a Cougar of the 5e RHC collide at night in the Eranga valley in Mali during Opération Bourgou IV. Thirteen soldiers are killed, the heaviest French military loss in a single day since Beirut in 1983.
France leaves Mali. Across Serval and Barkhane, 58 French service personnel have died in the Sahel since 2013. The ALAT comes home with more recent combat experience than any other helicopter force in Western Europe, and a fleet that has been flown hard.
1 August: the command of the ALAT leaves Vélizy-Villacoublay after fifty-eight years and sets up at the caserne Ney in Metz with about 145 military and civilian staff. On 1 June the first NH90 Caiman had arrived at Djibouti to replace the detachment’s last Puma.
30 July: the DGA delivers the first NH90 Caiman Standard 2 to the special forces regiment at Pau, the first of eighteen due by spring 2029. In June the army tells parliament that only about fourteen Tigres will be modernised by 2035, and that it is studying an anti-tank missile for the Guépard because the Gazelle cannot really be replaced.
Every campaign the French Army Light Aviation has fought, 1954 to today
Eleven campaigns since 1954 — Algeria, Chad, the Gulf, the Balkans, Ivory Coast, Afghanistan, Libya and nine years of the Sahel — flown almost entirely on French-built helicopters.
- The Sahel: Serval and Barkhane 2013-2022 Armed reconnaissance, night attack, air assault and special forces infiltration across an area the size of Europe, with almost no infrastructure and no rescue within reach
- Libya (Opération Harmattan) 2011 Night attack on ground forces and heavy weapons from a helicopter battle group embarked aboard two amphibious assault ships, striking targets that fixed-wing aircraft could not reach without collateral damage
- Afghanistan (Pamir and ISAF) 2001-2014 Armed escort, route opening, fire support to French and allied troops, convoy protection and casualty evacuation from a helicopter battalion at Kabul
- Ivory Coast (Opération Licorne) 2002-2015 Transport, reconnaissance, special forces support and, in April 2011, armed strikes on heavy weapons in Abidjan alongside United Nations helicopters
- Kosovo (Opération Trident) 1999-2014 Reconnaissance, transport, liaison and support to the French brigade of the NATO-led force
Everything people ask about the French Army Light Aviation
What is the ALAT?
When was the ALAT founded?
Where is the ALAT headquarters?
Who commands the ALAT?
How many helicopters does the French army have?
What is the Tigre and how many does France have?
What happened to the Tigre Mk3 upgrade?
Is the Gazelle still in service?
What is the H160M Guépard?
Which regiments does the ALAT have?
Does the ALAT fly drones?
What was the ALAT’s biggest deployment?
What happened in Mali on 25 November 2019?
How many French soldiers died in the Sahel?
Did French helicopters fight in Libya?
Where does the ALAT train its pilots?
Does the ALAT still have units overseas?
What is the GIH?
Why is the ALAT beret royal blue?
Can I fly in a French army helicopter?
Every fact, checked
- Ministère des Armées: Chiffres clés de la défense 2026Published 10 September 2026; inventory tables at 31 December 2025
- Ministère des Armées: Commandement de l’Aviation légère de l’armée de TerreCOM ALAT mission, the 4e brigade d’aérocombat, the schools, and the official share of French state helicopters
- Légifrance: décret du 24 juin 2026 portant affectation d’officiers générauxGénéral de brigade Fabrice Talarico appointed COM ALAT and commander of the Metz-Verdun defence base with effect from 1 August 2026
- Légifrance: décret du 24 juillet 2026 portant affectation d’officiers générauxGénéral de division David Cruzille leaves for the army human resources directorate on 1 August 2026
- Annuaire de l’administration: Commandement de l’aviation légère de l’armée de terrenames the commander; still gives the Vélizy-Villacoublay address after the 2025 move to Metz
- Miss Konfidentielle: interview of the general commanding the ALAT on the move from Villacoublay to Metz4 August 2025: 280 helicopters and 14 aeroplanes, about 4,600 regulars and 1,000 reservists, the move to the caserne Ney
- Ministère des Armées / DGA: Lancement de la rénovation à mi-vie des hélicoptères TigreOCCAR contract of 2 March 2022, 42 French aircraft, standard 3, deliveries from 2030, near four billion euros with Spain
- Zone Militaire (opex360): le chef d’état-major de l’armée de Terre confirme la suspension du programme Tigre Mk3May 2023 suspension of the Tigre Mk3
- Zone Militaire (opex360): le prototype de l’hélicoptère Tigre RMV décollera en 202619 December 2025: Airbus Helicopters on the mid-life renovation prototype
- Zone Militaire (opex360): l’ALAT envisage de doter ses Tigre de munitions téléopérées Toutatis5 July 2026: Toutatis loitering munition, 30 km range, 30 minutes, swarm capable; RMV prototype to fly soon
- Zone Militaire (opex360): la Gazelle étant irremplaçable, l’armée de Terre songe à doter ses futurs Guépard de missiles antichars11 June 2026: 80 Guépard for the army, at least five before 2030 against twenty planned, about 14 Tigres modernised by 2035, Gazelle supported to 2039
- Zone Militaire (opex360): l’hélicoptère d’attaque Gazelle sera encore en service à l’horizon 204022 June 2023: the army confirms the Gazelle will fly to around 2040
- Ministère des Armées / DGA: livraison du premier NH90 Caïman Standard 2 aux forces spéciales de l’armée de Terre30 July 2026 delivery, 18 aircraft to the 4e RHFS at Pau, deliveries to spring 2029, Euroflir 410 and the special forces fit
- Zone Militaire (opex360): à Djibouti, l’armée de Terre remplace ses Puma par quatre NH-90 Caïman4 June 2025: two Caiman arrive 1 June 2025, two more in August; the departing Puma came from the 1er and 3e RHC
- Defense Zone: l’hélicoptère Puma, l’emblème de l’ALAT, en fin de servicePuma fleet shrinking from 52 in 2019, availability of about 30 per cent in 2017, Domgermain maintenance centre closing and Caiman support moving to Phalsbourg
- Ministère des Armées: PATROLLER, système de drone tactiqueoperated exclusively by the 61e régiment d’artillerie; endurance, range, ceiling and detachment size
- Zone Militaire (opex360): M. Lecornu confirme la livraison de 28 drones tactiques Patroller au 61e régiment d’artillerie5 May 2023: 28 Patroller air vehicles confirmed
- Sénat: Quel bilan pour l’opération Barkhane ? (rapport d’information no. 708, 2022–2023)58 French service personnel killed in the Sahel; 3,000 to 5,000 troops, six or seven fighters and about twenty helicopters deployed; American tankers flew 54 per cent of the flying hours
- Présidence de la République: hommage national aux treize militaires morts pour la France en opération au Mali2 December 2019 national tribute; the thirteen names, ranks and units
- Zone Militaire (opex360): l’opération Harmattan en chiffres4 November 2011: about forty helicopter raids, 450 targets destroyed, 432 HOT missiles and 1,500 rockets, 90 per cent of coalition helicopter strikes
- Zone Militaire (opex360): Lieutenant Damien Boiteux, mort pour la France11 January 2013: Gazelle pilot of the 4e RHFS killed attacking a column heading for Konna, first French death of Serval
- Zone Militaire (opex360): les hélicoptères de combat Tigre sont arrivés en Afghanistan26 July 2009: three Tigre of the 5e RHC at Kabul, joining three Caracal and three Gazelle Viviane; the type’s first combat
- Zone Militaire (opex360): les deux derniers hélicoptères Tigre de l’ALAT ont quitté l’Afghanistan5 February 2013: end of the Tigre deployment in Afghanistan
- Zone Militaire (opex360): les hélicoptères de la force Licorne de nouveau en action10 April 2011: French Gazelles and UNOCI helicopters fire on heavy weapons around the presidential palace and residence in Abidjan
- SIA France: AIP and VAC charts for French military and mixed aerodromescross-check for runway designators, lengths and surfaces
- Ministère des Armées: Chiffres clés de la Défense 2026table 7.1 Armée de Terre, chiffres au 31 décembre 2025: Hélicoptères 275 — Gazelle (80), Tigre (67), Cougar (24), Puma SA 330 (15), Caracal (8), Caïman NH90 (63), Fennec (18)
- DSAE/DIRCAM MILAIP France: MIAC2 LFQP Phalsbourg-BourscheidALT AD 1018 ft (37 hPa); ARP 48 46 05N 007 12 18E
- DSAE/DIRCAM MILAIP France: MIAC2 LFQE Étain-RouvresALT AD 760 ft (28 hPa)
- DSAE/DIRCAM MILAIP France: MIAC2 LFMC Le Luc-Le CannetALT AD 265 ft (10 hPa); ARP 43 23 05N 006 23 13E
- DSAE/DIRCAM MILAIP France: MIAC2 LFBY Dax-SeyresseALT AD 102 ft (4 hPa); ARP 43 41 21N 001 04 08W; RWY 07/25 800 x 40 m revêtue
- DSAE/DIRCAM MILAIP France: MIAC4 LFPV Vélizy-Villacoublay ADC 01RWY 09/27 1957 x 45 m; TORA 1957, TODA 2067, ASDA 1957, LDA 1886
Figures verified 2026-09-13. Order of Battle pages are regenerated from a single dataset; if a number here disagrees with a Book of Beasts page, this page is the more recent of the two.
Photographs: DVIDS, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons