Denis Mercier

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Denis Mercier, 2015

Denis Mercier (born October 4, 1959 in Barcelonnette ) is a general in the French Air Force and since March 23, 2015 Supreme Allied Commander Transformation .

Mercier joined the French Air Force in 1979 and graduated in 1981. By 1983 he completed his training as a fighter pilot and was then employed as a flight group leader, among other things, and achieved a total of over 3000 flight hours on the Mirage F1 and Mirage 2000 , of which 182 hours in combat missions as part of Operation Deny Flight over Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1994. As a squadron captain he temporarily commanded the 1/12 "Cambrésis" season. After a use in the NATO command AFNORTH in Brunssum he was from 2001 to the military airfield Reims responsible with all units stationed there and prepared them after the September 11, 2001 on the mission in Afghanistan before.

From 2004 to 2008 he worked at the headquarters of the French Air Force in Paris as a department head for planning and from 2007 was jointly responsible for budget planning. He then took over command of the École de l'air in Salon-de-Provence, thus taking responsibility for the entire training of young officers in the air force. He then became an advisor to the Minister of Defense and took over command of the Armée de l'air on September 17, 2011 , where he was responsible, among other things, for the introduction of the Transall successor, the Airbus A400M , and finally became Supreme Allied in March 2015 after confirmation by the North Atlantic Council Commander Transformation; both times Jean-Paul Paloméros was his predecessor.

To the criticism of the new US President Donald Trump , who was elected at the end of 2016 , that NATO was " obsolete ", Mercier replied at the end of January 2017 that although not NATO itself, the structures should be subjected to an examination, as they are in some cases obsolete.

Mercier is married and has three children.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c North Atlantic Treaty Organization: Supreme Allied Commander Transformation - General Denis Mercier. In: Allied Command Transformation. January 29, 2015, accessed April 3, 2017 .
  2. ^ Gerhard Hegmann, Gesche Wüpper: A400M debacle claims the first prominent victim. In: The world. April 3, 2017. Retrieved April 3, 2017 .
  3. ↑ NATO announces nomination of General Denis Mercier, French Air Force, as Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT). In: NATO. March 23, 2015, accessed April 3, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Michael R. Gordon and Niraj Chokshi: Trump Criticizes NATO and Hopes for 'Good Deals' With Russia. In: New York Times. January 15, 2017, accessed April 3, 2017 .
  5. ↑ 'There is a need for adaptation': Top NATO general echoes Trump's 'obsolete' criticism. In: Business Insider. Associated Press, January 18, 2017, accessed April 3, 2017 : "Mercier acknowledged that NATO has 'some structures that are obsolete.'"
personal data
SURNAME Mercier, Denis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French officer, General of the French Air Force and Supreme Allied Commander Transformation
DATE OF BIRTH 4th October 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelonnette