Air Defense

[Kilgore]

I was speaking with my father about his time in the American military. After serving in the Infantry in Vietnam, he later reclassed to Air Defense and ended up as the senior NCO for man-portable air defense platoons (Stinger missile platform) before becoming the NCO in charge of the Army Air Defense School at Fort Bliss, Texas. Eventually the Legion came up in our conversation and he asked me if I knew if they had any Air Defense capabilities along those lines. I told him that I didn't think so but wasn't 100% certain so I figured I'd pose the question to you guys. I tried the search function but found nothing. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

[a1b2c3]

I was speaking with my father about his time in the American military. After serving in the Infantry in Vietnam, he later reclassed to Air Defense and ended up as the senior NCO for man-portable air defense platoons (Stinger missile platform) before becoming the NCO in charge of the Army Air Defense School at Fort Bliss, Texas. Eventually the Legion came up in our conversation and he asked me if I knew if they had any Air Defense capabilities along those lines. I told him that I didn't think so but wasn't 100% certain so I figured I'd pose the question to you guys. I tried the search function but found nothing. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

Pretty sure the only photos's I've ever seen of MANPAD's were legionnaires with 3REI, protecting the launch site in Guyane. I know there are some 20mm AA gunners in the Legion... I remember there was an article in KB about 5 years back about that, but I don't know that there are any actual gun platforms at 2REI, the only logical place that they'd be.

I was Génie, so we would probably just sneak up to the airfields at night and blow the shiznit out of the planes/helicopters while they were still on the ground.

[Kilgore]

I was Génie, so we would probably just sneak up to the airfields at night and blow the shiznit out of the planes/helicopters while they were still on the ground.

Sounds like a more cost effective way to take out the enemy aircraft than using tens of thousands of dollars worth of missiles. Haha. Thanks for the input, it's much appreciated.

[Samtoo]

In 1977 while in the Peloton Commando of the Mighty Third Escadron of 1REC, we trained to provide air defense for the Escadron using Browning M2's with an anti-aérien sight and tripod. We checked them out of the magasin de corps and brought them to La Courtine. The target was a bedsheet being towed by a small plane. This was at a time when everyone knew of Stinger missiles and we knew we were ****ed. We didn't hit any small planes or bedsheets but we did cut a couple of bedsheets apart to make rags to clean those guns and tripods when we were done using them.
I believe at the time the 2REI had sections trained to use the M2s in a dedicated anti-aérienne defense.

[mammikoura]

Like a1b2c3 said you've got some Mistral short range missiles in 3REI in order to protect the launch site. And that's it. Nowadays it's mostly the aircraft taking out air defenses instead of the other way around.