1er REC: Commando Training Center now open to other military units

The Commando Training Center of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) was inaugurated this May. Since early December 2021, the center has helped to strengthen operational readiness of troops from other operational units of the Legion.

As noted earlier on this website, the 1er REC’s Commando Training and Hardening Center (CIAC) was opened in May 2021. The center, led by Lieutenant Olivier G. (in fact, a long-serving legionnaire), was created by merging the 1st REC’s hardening unit and sports office. It spreads over three locations: Carpiagne Camp (the regiment’s base camp near Marseille), Fort Montrose (south of Marseille) with its individual track, and an amphibious facility placed at calanque (a narrow) of Port-Miou in Cassis, a commune located south of the Carpiagne Camp. With this complex and its privileged access to the sea, the CIAC is ideally placed to offer comprehensive training courses, combining both land and water combat activities and training.

Up to date, the CIAC was open to 1er REC legionnaires only. Now, it is also open to those units that need to strengthen their operational readiness before their overseas deployment. This mainly means units of the 6th Light Armored Brigade, including several Legion regiments. Other units will have access to the CIAC in the medium term.

The operational readiness course takes 13 days in total. It comprises a 10-day phase of acquiring basic know-how in the fields of obstacle surmounting and (close) combat, which is followed by a 72-hour tactical know-how practice, including infiltration in a maritime environment and then on land at night, vertical crossing, combat, guerilla tactics and tactical withdrawal. Upon the course, the participants receive the CIAC 1er REC badge.

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