The (General directorate for civil defense and crisis management) is a civil defense agency of the French Government. It operates under the Ministry of the Interior and employs some 2,500 civilian and military personnel over 60 sites. Known as the until 1976, the is split into several branches:

The , which is in charge of auditing civil defense public policies. The , which is in charge of French firefighters. The , which is the crisis oversight service. It includes the units involved in bomb disposal, coast guard, mountain rescue, air ambulance and medical evacuation, and aerial firefighting duties. The (sub-directorate of international affairs, resources and strategy).

Aircraft

aircraft operate under the rescue operation and civil-military cooperation branch of the (Aerial Group). Aircraft carry the title SECURITE CIVILE on their fuselage sides, together with the international civil defence symbol. The aircraft are divided into the (Helicopter Group) and the (Water Bomber Group).

Helicopter group

The helicopter group has 23 helicopter bases in mainland France and its overseas territories. It has a fleet of 35 helicopters and employs 230 pilots and flight engineers and 50 ground engineers. Over its 50 years of activity, the helicopter group has a track record of 480,000 flight hours, 250,000 rescue missions and 225,000 people rescued. Helicopter group aircraft use the callsign "DRAGON", followed by the number of the in which their base is located.

Eurocopter EC145 (35)

currently operates 35 EC-145 helicopters that were delivered between 2002 and 2005. The fleet has accumulated over 100,000 flight hours. The EC-145 fleet is used for search and rescue, fire fighting, emergency medical services (EMS), surveillance and law enforcement. EC-145s are deployed on 22 bases in France and the French Overseas Territories. An order has been placed for a further five helicopters, to be delivered from January 2009. This will enable the phasing out of the six remaining Alouette III helicopters. The EC 145 carries out an average 10,000 rescue missions each year, representing over 13,300 flight hours.

Bases Helicopter group bases of operation are located at:.Helicopter group organisation (in French)

Ajaccio (Corsica) Annecy Bastia (Corsica) Besançon Bordeaux Cannes Clermont-Ferrand Granville Grenoble Le Havre Lille Lorient Lyon Marseille Montpellier Paris - Issy-les-Moulineaux Pau Perpignan Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) Quimper La Rochelle Strasbourg

The (command centre), and helicopter maintenance base is located in Nîmes.

Helicopters are detached to several other bases seasonally. In summer, aircraft are detached to Courchevel, Alpes d'Huez, Gavarnie, Lacanau, and Chamonix. In winter, aircraft are detached to Chamonix and Alpes d'Huez.

Water bomber group

Bombardier 415 (12)

12 Bombardier 415s are currently operated by the , each able to drop .Envoi de deux Canadair sur l'île de Rhodes (French) France was the first nation to commit to the CL-415 Canadair in 1992, so that it could phase out its Canadair CL-215s.

Bombardier Dash 8 (8)

Two pre-owned Bombardier Dash 8 Q400s, acquired from Scandinavian Airlines System, were modified by Cascade Aerospace of Abbotsford, British Columbia, for the to act as fire-fighting water bombers during fire season and as transport aircraft during the off season. This aircraft is designated the Q400-MR (Multi Role). The aircraft can be reconfigured into passenger, cargo or aerial fire control roles in under three hoursCascade Aerospace - Q400 Airtanker Conversion and can drop in the tanker role.De Havilland Canada Dash 8 6 more were ordered in 2017 for 365M€, 4 of which were delivered by the end of 2021. Based at Garons Provence Airport.

Beechcraft Super King Air 200 (3)

Bases All fixed-wing aircraft are based at Garons Provence Airport.

Bomb disposal

307 bomb disposal experts are based at 20 bomb disposal units, including 2 overseas units (Guadeloupe and French Guiana). They are responsible for the detection, removal, disposal or destruction of suspicious objects. They also provide assistance during official travel or large demonstrations and disarm and destroy dormant ammunition still present from the two world wars.

In 2004, of munitions was disposed of, whilst forty-three bomb disposal experts were deployed on the sixtieth anniversary of the Normandy landings, seventeen on the sixtieth anniversary of the landing in Provence, and sixteen during the visit of Pope John Paul II to Lourdes.

References

External links

- Sécurité Civile (in French) Sécurité Civile Helicopters (in French) Sécurité Civile Helicopters fleet