[VIDEO] Lot-et-Garonne: The gendarmes in commando mode with the 48th RT

It is not yet 3 p.m. this Wednesday, somewhere at the Croix-Blanche, between Agen and Villeneuve-sur-Lot. After a bumpy path just bordered by a colony of grazing cows, the immensity of a wooded area looms. A calm barely disturbed by a tractor in the distance busy turning over the first hay of the season. An almost ideal setting for a walk despite a mercury that licks the 30°C mark. The first rising heat of this year 2022. Suddenly, a burst of gunfire erupts from the forest. Bursts of voices rise in the cross-white sky. “These two days of training are the result of a collaboration agreement between the national gendarmerie and the army signed in 2018 and which was renewed in 2021”, explains Lieutenant-Colonel Christophe Niessler.

For two days, therefore, in this wooded area on military land, was the scene of training provided by the 3rd company of the 48th Signals Regiment of Agen for soldiers belonging to the Psig (surveillance and intervention of the gendarmerie) of Agen. « We have a little more than fifteen personnel who follow this course », underlines Colonel Emmanuel Houzé, commander of the gendarmerie group of Lot-et-Garonne.

Increase safety in intervention

Three soldiers belonging to the Psig de Dordogne also took part in these training operations in the heart of Lot-et-Garonne.

« This is a great first in this type of » cooperation « between these different military bodies on the territory of the former Aquitaine », notes Commander Catherine Delorme, head of communication within the New Aquitaine gendarmerie. This program allows exchanges between personnel, particularly in the field of interventions.

During the day and at nightfall, the trainers of the 48th RT set up a whole series of exercises in order to provide additional information to their colleagues at the Psig. « Move, the act of reflex, how to act in a sometimes hostile environment », he explains. Enforcement, of course, by arms. A sometimes hostile terrain with which the gendarmes of the Psig can be confronted in intervention (even if they intervene in large majority in urban areas). No one has forgotten the hunt in the Dordogne, near Lardin Saint-Lazare, a year ago, for nearly 48 hours, where many security forces launched an assault on a fugitive (who had taken advantage of hostile terrain in the middle of the woods or for another case in the Cévennes.

« It’s a way to improve our tactical and technical techniques, » adds Colonel Emmanuel Houzé.

Various workshops have been conducted. Some also at nightfall. « In the dark, the perception is different. It is important to work on this aspect », slips the officer within the 48th RT « a way also to learn to take advantage of the protections that the natural environment can offer ».

At the end of each sequence, debriefings were carried out to « press on the fundamental points ».

The 48th RT again

deployed

As of this week, some 130 soldiers from the 48th signal regiment of Agen will join various theaters of external operations.

They will leave the Toussaint barracks to join – at least a large contingent – ​​Africa as part of Operation Barkhane. Some will be deployed in N’Djamena in Chad, others in Niamey in Niger and some in Gao in Mali. Those who will be assigned to this base will continue the operations to close this base in West Africa announced by the President of the Republic, in particular through major logistical operations. The corps commander of the Agenais regiment, Colonel Thomas Cassan, will also be part of this external deployment in Africa.

Other soldiers from the 48th RT – more than ten – will join Guyana as part of Operation Harpie (which has been in place since the end of the 2000s to track down illegal gold miners in collaboration with the internal security forces) .

Finally, others are already engaged in Romania as part of the Aigle mission set up by NATO.