With around 10,500 staff, France's Directorate General of Armaments equips the armed forces, prepares for the future and manages relations with an industrial base of more than 4,000 SMEs, mid-sized firms and start-ups. Its orders reached €20.3 billion in 2023.
In France, a large share of airworthiness oversight is entrusted by the DGAC to an authorised body, OSAC. It is an unusual model in Europe, and one that shapes daily life for maintenance shops, CAMOs and aircraft owners.
According to Insee, aerospace employment in former Midi-Pyrénées rose from 17,000 to 81,000 between 1982 and 2022, while manufacturers' share declined in favour of suppliers and engineering firms.
Selected in 1964 from fourteen candidate sites, the Guiana Space Centre owes a decisive advantage for geostationary launches to its latitude of 5° North. ESA funds around two-thirds of its annual budget.
Before engineering school, the aerospace industry recruits technicians on a large scale. The aeronautics vocational baccalaureate and the BTS in aeronautics are the two pillars of this technical training, both in school and through apprenticeship.