The French Armed Forces are the military forces of France. They consist of four military branches – the Army, the Navy, the Air and Space Force, and the National Gendarmerie. The National Guard serves as the French Armed Forces' military reserve force. As stipulated by France's constitution, the president of France serves as commander-in-chief of the French military. France has the ninth largest defense budget in the world and the second largest in the European Union (EU). It also has the largest military by size in the EU. As of 2021, the total active personnel of the French Armed Forces is 270,000. While the reserve personnel is 63,700, for a total of 333,000 personnel. Including the active personnel of the National Gendarmerie, the total manpower of all the French Armed Forces combined is 435,000 strong. A 2015 Credit Suisse report ranked the French Armed Forces as the world's sixth most powerful military.
A massive wildfire scorched 17,000 hectares of scrubland and conifer forest in the Aude region of southern France, causing..