Former CEMAA, current supreme commander at NATO, General LANATA intervenes at HEIP
On September 17, we had the great honor of welcoming General André Lanata to our premises.
Former Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CEMAA) and current Supreme Allied Commander for NATO Transformation, he is also Commander of the National Order of Merit, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor . He was invited to HEIP by our student association Def’INSEEC.
The General was able to have lunch on campus with the HEIP team, Thibault Del Cotto (President of the Def’INSEEC student association), Gwendal Rouillard (depurated from Lorient), as well as Chief Warrant Officer Plumier, the Major Bouthiaux, Lieutenant Dujardin, Colonel Celo… He then presented his career and his missions and answered students’ questions concerning Europe and the current geopolitical situation. Finally, he agreed to be interviewed by two students from our newspaper Le P’tit H, Amélie Borruel and Jeanne Hurteloup (interview to discover here!).
The event was open to all and we also had the pleasure of welcoming students from ILERI, the School of Economic Warfare and the Sorbonne.
To find out more about General LANATA’s career:
Origin and formation
André Lanata is the son of Vincent Lanata, Air Force General and Air Force Chief of Staff from 1991 to 1994. A graduate of the École de l’air (Colonel Rossi dit Levallois class of 1981) and of the University of Aix-Marseille, he was licensed as a fighter pilot in 1984.
Military career
André Lanata began his career as a fighter pilot in 1985 on the Mirage F1CR5. He was first assigned to the 1/33 Belfort reconnaissance squadron (1985-1992), then to the 2/33 Savoie reconnaissance squadron, both based in Strasbourg. In 1993, he joined the armament programs office of the Air Force staff as an officer writing reconnaissance programs, before joining the third class of the Joint Defense College in 1995. . From 1996 to 1999, he was second and then commander of the 2/3 Champagne fighter squadron (equipped with Mirage 2000D) at Nancy-Ochey air base 133.
His squadron assignments led him to be deployed in operations on numerous occasions: Epervier in Chad (1988-1989), Daguet (Iraq, 1990-1991), Aconit (Turkey and Iraq, 1991-1993), Crécerelle (Bosnia-Herzegovina , 1997), Joint Endeavor (Ex-Yugoslavia, 1997) and Trident (Kosovo, 1999-2000). He has completed 146 war missions and 3300 flight hours.
From 2000 to 2004, André Lanata was assigned to the General Staff, first as a drafting officer in the “Plans-Programs-Evaluation” division, then as an operational coherence officer (OCO) “Preparation”. . He then took command of Air Base 188 in Djibouti from 2004 to 2006.
In 2006, he returned to the Air Force staff as deputy head and then head of the Plans office. Then, promoted to Air Brigadier General, he became Deputy Director of International and Strategic Affairs of the General Secretariat for Defense and National Security on September 1, 2008.
Appointed General of the Air Division on September 1, 2011, he joined the General Staff of the Armed Forces as Deputy Chief of Staff Operations. Finally, as of September 1, 2013, he was elevated to the rank and title of Air Lieutenant General and appointed Deputy Chief of Plans of the Armed Forces Staff.
Air Force Chief of Staff
On June 3, 2015, André Lanata was appointed by the Council of Ministers as Air Force Chief of Staff and raised to the rank and designation of Air Force General from the following September 21. He succeeds General Denis Mercier, appointed Supreme Allied Commander for NATO Transformation.
He delivered his first agenda on September 21, 2015, after taking up arms at Villacoublay Air Base 107.
Under his command, the Air Force is particularly involved in operations Barkhane in the Sahel and Chammal in Iraq and Syria.
Supreme Allied Commander for NATO Transformation
On August 30, 2018, he left his post as Chief of Staff of the Air Force. He was appointed Supreme Allied Commander for NATO Transformation on September 13, 2018 for a three-year term. This appointment, anticipated in April 2018, makes him the fourth former Air Force Chief of Staff to be appointed to this post, after Generals Stéphane Abrial, Jean-Paul Paloméros and Denis Mercier.