Chief of Staff of the French Navy

Well before the First World War, the Chief of Staff of the French Navy was at first hand the Military Cabinet Chief of the Minister of the Navy. This mode of functioning was at origin the main utilization designation of the military figure which had effective authority on the French Navy, and referred to the admiral who commanded the armed naval force, often designated as amiralissime, in reference to the title of « généralissime » used in the French Army.

The First World War replaced all these functionalities in cause, with major incorporation of various tasks in order to conduct a long term industrial naval warfare in light of disposing and having the means to confront new menaces, mainly constituted by submarine warfare and mine explosions: in accordance, another sort of twin identical general staff headquarters directorate was created and designated as Directorate General of Submarine Warfare (DGGSM) with an action domain often described as redundant, a constituted redundancy which naturally led to the dissolving of the DGGSM, at the end of World War I and the transfer of the various associated attribution prerogatives to the various bureaux of the General Staff of the Navy.

In order to dispose of an effective permanent system allowing the uniform façade transition shiftings between times of peace - preparation periods - and times of war - action periods -, the Chief of Staff became, in the early years of 1920s, the designated Commandant of the French Naval Forces in case of war, and the various work functionalities of the General Staff would be in such circumstances at the disposition of the Major General of the French Navy, a Vice-Admiral and his first deputy in times of peace.

After World War II, the progressive disappearing of the Ministry of the Navy led to confine a part of the prerogatives of the Naval Minister to the Chief of Staff, a part of the prerogatives which were in a progressive manner adopted at the Joint level by the Defence Staff and its Chief. This Chief accordingly inherited the direction responsibility of naval and maritime operations from the Chief of Staff of the Navy in 1971, while the French Army and French Air Force had their combat authority direction responsibility of operations transferred to the Chief of the Defence Staff ten years earlier in 1961.

In the early 2000s, a large part of these organic prerogatives - forces preparations - were transferred to Chief of the Defence Staff, however the Chief of Staff of the Navy remains the principal counselor and adviser in relation to the preparation of use of the French Navy.