Operation Sentinel is an operation of the French Army deployed following the episodes Of January 9, 2015, to encounter the terrorists threatening the national territory and defend the territory’s sensitive “points”. It was fortified during the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Île-de-France.
From 2015 to 2021, Operation Sentinel witnessed a succession of nearly 225,000 French soldiers, 95% of them belonging to the Army, in order to support internal security forces’ fight against terrorism.
After the attacks of January 2015, the President of the Republic determined to place the VIGIPIRATE plan at the highest level of vigilance and to preserve a significant number of personnel mobilized within the armies. This decision led to the outcome of Operation Sentinel. Since January 14, 2015, it has made it feasible to deploy more than 10,000 soldiers in France: 6,000 in Île-de-France and 4,000 in the provinces. These soldiers come from diverse garrisons spread across the territory. Committed to complementing police and gendarmerie units, the armed forces concentrate their effort on the protection of sensitive centres of interest.
After having established an emergency system in the face of a crisis situation, the army decides to gradually adapt its mode of action towards greater mobility. Static military patrols are being replaced by more mobile patrols. The objective is to “make the presence of the military less predictable” and “to reduce the military workforce in stages, to bring it to 7,500, then 3,000.
According to the authorities, since the deployment of the operation, the soldiers have used their equipment in self-defence, following the attack of a Sentinel trio. More generally, “they used force on 28 occasions, including 17 times in self-defence, 6 to provide service to the police and 5 for interposition or flagrant offences”. All the interventions carried out with the public by the military since the start of the operation, “they have set up 1,302 security perimeters, lent a hand to the internal security forces on 285 occasions, provided contribution to the population 151 times, observed 42 traffic accidents, were the subject of 509 recorded provocations/insults – the number of incidents being much higher.
Protection and deterrence are the tasks at the heart of Operation Sentinel. The soldiers mobilized in this framework must guarantee the integrity of the domain and provide the French with effective protection against all menaces and threats. As part of their objective of deterrence, they must also guard France against any form of aggression. The soldiers deployed on the territory work in consolidated collaboration with the Internal Security Forces (ISF), as close as possible to the points struck by the terrorists.
Adaptable, the device makes it achievable to meet the needs of civil authorities. It develops depending on the security situation. Faced with this unusual crisis, the French army’s commitment consists, for example, of fastening air and maritime spaces and supporting the action of internal security muscles through the deployment of a land force. Operation Sentinel forces can be orchestrated towards large gatherings or border controls.