In the basement of the Kléber neighborhood, this large red brick military complex located in the heart of Lille, a new command center has seen the light of day. A year ago it was still just a disused basement. But today, this narrow room that the world I was able to visit, which is accessed by a small staircase, is intended to be the Army’s new operations control center in Europe. The headquarters of the so-called “land command for air-land operations in Europe” (Commandement Terre Europe, CTE), which will be the subject of an official visit by General Pierre Schill, chief of the Army General Staff, on Friday, October 4, and to the that around sixty soldiers were assigned.
Launched in October 2023, to begin the transfer of the land army from Africa to Europe in a context of gradual expulsion from the Sahel and withdrawal of French forces from Niger, the CTE did not initially gather, only a handful of tight officers. in some offices of the Kléber barracks. But, given the increase in conflict in Europe after the war in Ukraine, the Army General Staff has accelerated its reorganization. A challenge that is both human – the effort made by the army is constant – and cultural, after thirty years of fighting terrorism on the African continent.
Thus, the CTE basements are equipped according to the standards of an operations center of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). A large “U”-shaped table and a dozen armchairs have been installed next to a series of crisis stations spread over three levels, in front of a gigantic screen that allows several operations carried out simultaneously to be viewed in real time. The room has been equipped with a new video conferencing system. Around it are shown the times of the key European countries for French operations in Europe: Poland, Romania, Armenia, Estonia, Ukraine and even Bosnia. On one wall, a relief map of Romania and Moldova seems almost anachronistic in this high-tech command post.
No “military Schengen”
General Pierre-Eric Guillot is the head of this PC Terre Europe, whose symbol recently chosen to embody it is a lion of Flanders on a shield with a blue background. It is he who is responsible for planning and preparing the confrontation of ground forces throughout European territory. From this position, he manages in particular the three main French operations in Europe: “Lynx” in Estonia, where some 540 soldiers are deployed, “Aigle” in Romania (between 800 and 1,000 soldiers expected) and all the training provided to Ukrainian soldiers. . in Poland, under the auspices of the European Union.
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