| abstract | - The Corps de l'armement, or corps des ingénieurs de l'armement is a Technical Grand Corps of the French State (grand corps de l'Etat), aimed at providing the French Armed Forces with all appropriate equipment and at supervising the French Aerospace & Defence industry. Its members are the ingénieurs de l'armement, or ingénieurs du corps de l'armement, nicknamed "IA" in French. They are high level engineers and public servants with military status, originating for most of them (more than 2/3 by decree) from the Ecole polytechnique and trained at ISAE (formation SUPAERO) or ENSTA ParisTech. The Corps de l'armement's main employer (50%) is the Direction générale de l'armement (General Directorate for Armament). The second half are employed in other bodies of the Ministry of Defence, in international Defence organizations (NATO, OCCAR,...) or can be detached in French administrative bodies (CNES, CEA, ESA,...) or the French and European industry (EADS, Safran, Thales Group, MBDA, DCNS...).
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