Interview with Marc-Antoine Girard (YL France-India 2023)

Our Young Leaders Spotlight series highlights Marc-Antoine Gérard. As a Rafale pilot and Colonel in the Air Force, he has participated in several joint operations between the French and Indian armies.

(Interview conducted in 2023)

Marc-Antoine, you are now a Colonel in the Air Force, how did you decide to join the ranks of the French army?

Several things led me to take the entrance exam for what was then the Air Force Academy and is now the Air and Space Academy in Salon-De-Provence. Initially, there was this passion for aviation since the age of six, especially for the profession of fighter pilot. A little later, I realized that I had a real affinity for the military environment and the notion of service. I had a fundamental desire to do a job where I would be useful and find meaning every day by going to work.

As a Rafale pilot, you have just completed your year of training at the War School: where does this passion for aviation come from?

Interestingly, I don't remember very well, and I still have trouble explaining it. I don't come from a military or aviation family. I grew up in Brittany and Mayenne, two regions that are not particularly associated with the world of aviation. I also didn't attend an airshow as a child. However, I devoured the comic books of Buck Danny, Tanguy and Laverdure, and Biggles at an early age.

Later, in high school, my parents gave me Pierre Clostermann's "Le Grand Cirque" (the top French fighter of the Second World War, Companion of the Liberation, with 33 confirmed aerial victories). This story, read over and over again, is all I kept in mind during the most difficult moments of the journey to become a fighter pilot.

As a Young Leader, you participated in seminars in Delhi and Bangalore in April 2023: what is your experience?

It was simply a unique and incredibly enriching experience! The diversity of profiles among the Young Leaders and their open-mindedness allowed me to return from India having learned about marketing, branding, sourcing, finance, voice preparation before giving an opera recital, current and future cancer treatments, social media influence strategies, managing a disability to lead both personal and professional life... What a chance for a military person like me to be offered the opportunity to exchange with fascinating individuals whose interests are light-years away from mine but who are eager to explain their world. I particularly remember two moments: Ashish Dhawan's intervention (CEO of The Convergence Foundation) on the situation and challenges of India, and the discussion among Young Leaders with Masoom Minawala, Aurelie Jean, and Vishal Agrawal about their personal journeys.

How does the bilateral relationship between the French and Indian air forces unfold?

Firstly, bilateral cooperation between the Air and Space Army (AAE) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) is not new as it was initiated in 1953, materialized by the use of many common equipment, the latest being the Rafale.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of a principle agreement to acquire 26 Rafales and 3 Scorpene submarines strengthens the existing link between the navies of our two countries. But equipment is not everything, and it is indeed joint training that is the crucible of real interoperability. That's why our air forces train together at least every two years during the Garuda exercise, held alternately in France and India.

General Stéphane Mille, Chief of Staff of the Air and Space Army, invited by his counterpart Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari, was notably able to inspect the French forces at the Jodhpur base during the 2022 edition of this exercise.

The crews of our air forces regularly come together for multinational training exercises such as Pitch Black in Australia or Desert Flag in the United Arab Emirates.

What are the highlights of the joint operations with the Indian army that you have participated in?

In addition to its commitment in France, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, the AAE annually projects itself into the Indo-Pacific during missions called "Pegasus". The Pegasus 2023 mission (10 Rafales, 5 A330 MRTT tanker aircraft, 4 A400M tactical transport aircraft, 300 airmen) is currently underway with the major objective of providing support to our forces pre-positioned in New Caledonia and French Polynesia. I had the chance to participate in the Pegasus 2018 mission where we made a stopover in India for a week to conduct training missions with Squadrons 1 (The Tigers) and 7 (Battle Axes) from the Gwalior base. I also had the opportunity to fly alongside Indian Rafales during the Orion exercise from the Mont-de-Marsan airbase in April of this year.

Can you tell us about the role played by France in the Indo-Pacific region and the strategic cooperations established?

France is a sovereign nation in the Indo-Pacific: 1.6 million of its citizens live there. Seven of its thirteen Overseas Departments and Regions and nine of the eleven million km2 of its exclusive economic zone are found there. For these reasons, the President of the Republic adopted a "French strategy in the Indo-Pacific" in 2018. This aims to maintain an open space, free from coercion, and based on respect for international law and multilateralism. It is for France to promote a multidimensional approach that integrates both the security and military dimension, freedom of navigation, connectivity, the economic and commercial dimension as well as the environmental dimension. It should be noted that this strategy was implemented by the Ministry of Armed Forces as a French defense strategy in the Indo-Pacific as early as 2019. Privileged partnerships have been developed with many countries in the area. India is at the forefront of these partnerships.