Maritime Gendarmerie

National Gendarmerie

Components Departmental Gendarmerie Mobile Gendarmerie Republican Guard Security and Intervention Group Intervention Group Parachute Intervention Squadron Maritime Gendarmerie Air Transport Gendarmerie Air Gendarmerie Ordnance Gendarmerie

The Maritime Gendarmerie (French: Gendarmerie Maritime) is a component of French gendarmerie under operational control of the chief of staff of the French Navy. It employs 1,100 soldiers and it has about thirty patrol craft and high-speed motorboats distributed on all the littoral waterways as well.

Missions

Vedette of the gendarmerie maritime in Guiana

Inflatable in La Rochelle

A vedette côtière de surveillance maritime in La Rochelle harbour.

Commanded by a colonel for action at sea, under the coordination of the Préfet Maritime:

• maritime safety and of general police force duties in the territorial waters and EEZ, under the authority of maritime prefect ;
• Criminal Investigation Department under the authority of public prosecutor ;
• protection of the naval shore establishments.
• some missions in assisting people at risk

Organisation

Marine Nationale

Motto: Honneur, Patrie, Valeur, Discipline (“Honour, Homeland, Valour, Discipline”) Command Naval Ministers Maritime Prefect Components Force d'action navale Forces sous-marines (FOST, ESNA) Aviation navale FORFUSCO (Commandos Marine, Fusiliers Marins) Gendarmerie Maritime Equipment Current fleet Current deployments Personnel Ranks in the French Navy History History of the French Navy Future of the French Navy Ensigns and pennants Historic ships    battleships    cruisers    ships of the line    Sail frigates Historic fleets Awards Croix de guerre Médaille militaire Légion d'honneur Ribbons

Commanded by a colonel who is assisted by a staff located in Paris, the coastguard is articulated in 3 groupings, 8 companies and 75 units (brigades of research, brigades of monitoring of the littoral, group of safety of the protected zones, group of monitoring of intervention and reinforcement, patrol craft, coastal high-speed motorboats of maritime surveillance) whose geographical distribution is as follows:

• Metropolis:
  • grouping of the English Channel and the North Sea in Cherbourg (2 companies)
  • grouping of the Atlantic in Brest (4 companies);
  • grouping of the Mediterranean in Toulon (2 companies);
  • company from Paris to the Career-on-Seine (under the authority of the state major);
  • national instruction center of the GM (C.N.I.G.M) in Toulon.
• Overseas:
  • Guadeloupe: 1 patrol craft;
  • French Guyana: 2 high-speed 20-metre motorboats;
  • Mayote: 1 patrol craft (20 metre high-speed motorboat);
  • French Polynesia: 1 patrol craft and a brigade;
  • New Caledonia: 1 high-speed motorboat of 20 meters and 2 brigades;
  • Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon: 1 patrol craft;
  • Martinique: 1 patrol craft;

Groupings

• Grouping of the English Channel and the North Sea (Cherbourg)
• Grouping of the Atlantic (Brest)
• Grouping of the Mediterranean (Toulon)

Companies

• 2 companies for the English Channel and the North Sea (Cherbourg and Le Havre)
• 4 companies for the Atlantic (Brest, Brest Arsenal, Ile-Longue and Lorient)
• 2 companies for the grouping of the Mediterranean (Toulon and Toulon-Arsenal)
• The company in Paris is based in Carrières-sur-Seine. Depending directly on staffing.
• 4 high-speed motorboats for maritime surveillance of 20 meters (Le Havre, Dieppe, Boulogne, Dunkirk)
• The National Center of Instruction of the GM (CNIGM) is located at Toulon

Means are also implemented in DOM and them TOM.

Notes

Like land-based colleagues the Gendarmes Maritime are military personnel carrying out police operations. Their missions include immigration control, monitoring of fishing operations, police at sea, and search and rescue operations. They also carry out provost duties within the French Navy.

The uniforms and insignia of the Gendarmerie Maritime are very similar to those of the French Navy, but the ranks used are those of the rest of the Gendarmerie (which are the same as the traditional ranks of the French Cavalry).

See also

• Hong Kong Marine Police, an equivalent police force in Hong Kong
• Water Police
• United States Coast Guard

External links

• Official Site of the Gendarmerie Maritime French only
• Forum anciens Gendarmes Maritimes French only