École de l'infanterie


The École de l'infanterie, formerly known as École d'application de l'infanterie, is a French military academy that trains commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers, and some enlisted personnel having special aptitudes and roles. It is located in Draguignan.
The École de l'infanterie offers over 70 different courses to around 1500 trainees yearly. Five hundred additional trainees from foreign armies or from French ministries other than that of Defence, attend annual courses there.,

History

The École d'application de l'infanterie was created on 30 January 1946 in Auvours, as a post-graduate course for young officers freshly graduated from Saint-Cyr.
On 15 October 1948, the school was moved to Coëtquidan, next to Saint-Cyr itself. In October 1951, it was moved again to Saint-Maixent, and opened to non-commissioned officer promoting to officer, to élèves-officiers de réserve, and to non-commissioned officers in active service.
On 15 January 1955, a new unit was created specifically to train serving army captains and majors, as well as promotable reserve officers.
On 1 August 1967, the school was moved again to Montpellier, and integrated with the École militaire d'infanterie. In 1969, it also absorbed the Centre de perfectionnement des cadres de l'infanterie, and later the Centre d'instruction spécialisé du tir et du combat de nuit.
The 2008 reforms of the French Defence forces moved the school to Draguignan in 2010.

Missions

The school has the following missions: