Aviation légère de l’armée de Terre (ALAT – the French Army Light Aviation) was formed on 22 November 1954 and assigned the tasks of providing observation, reconnaissance, assault and supply support for the Armée de Terre (the French Army).
Aviation légère d’observation d’artillerie (ALOA – the Light Aviation for Artillery Observation), created in 1952, was the direct predecessor of the force and the first aviation unit within the French Army. At that time, the ALOA was subordinate to the artillery
In its early years, ALAT operated a broad range of light aeroplanes, such as the Piper L-18, the Cessna L-19, the SNCAC NC.856 Norvigie and the Nord 3400 Norbarbe. Shortly after its establishment, the formation acquired its first helicopters – the Alouette II and Vertol H-21, which were later supplemented by the Sikorsky H-19 and H-34.
Over the following years, ALAT became specialised in helicopter warfare and, in 1975, formed its first Régiment d’hélicoptères de combat (RHC – the Combat Helicopter Regiment). During the 1970s, the French Army Light Aviation received several new rotorcraft types, including the Alouette III, the SA 330 Puma and the SA 341 Gazelle.
At the beginning of the 1980s, ALAT established an experimental unit codenamed BAE (Brigade aéromobile expérimentale – the Experimental Airmobile Brigade), which in 1985 was converted into the 4e division aéromobile (4e DAM – the 4th Airmobile Division). At its peak, the division consisted of four helicopter regiments with a total of 160 rotorcraft, one infantry regiment and one maintenance/support regiment.
On 7 October 2003, ALAT was officially separated from the artillery to become an independent branch of the French Army.
Today, ALAT’s air capabilities are still based on a wide variety of rotorcraft. The French Army Light Aviation currently operates around seventy Eurocopter EC665 Tiger attack helicopters, almost forty SA 330 Puma and AS532 Cougar helicopters, eight Airbus H225M Caracals and more than one hundred Gazelles. The latest additions to the ALAT fleet include the NHIndustries NH90 (approximately seventy examples) and the Airbus H160 (eighty examples).
In addition, the ALAT inventory also includes the Pilatus PC-6 Porter and the Socata TBM 700 transport aircraft, as well as the Eurocopter AS555 Fennec and the EC120 Colibri helicopters for training purposes.
