the essentials In Montauban, meeting with the members of the 3rd RMAT (Material Regiment), responsible for monitoring and repairing the parachutes used by the men of the 11th Parachute Brigade.
A windowless building, industrial type, several stories high, surrounded by high walls topped with barbed wire, and messages prohibiting any attempt at intrusion: north of Montauban, on the road to Nègrepelisse, is the antenna of the 3rd RMAT (Material Regiment) in charge of the maintenance and folding of all the jump equipment used by the men of the 11th Parachute Brigade. And therefore the 1st RCP. An astonishing military enclosure: the footprint of this antenna looks more like a modern textile company.
The huge repair shop. Here, civilians (particularly seamstresses) and soldiers work together to repair damaged equipment.
“We have a company here in charge of packaging the parachutes,” explains Captain Jean-Louis, deputy senior officer. It takes 130 to 140 people for this purely military activity. There is a company, which includes soldiers and around a hundred civilians, for repairing equipment, not just parachutes… And the command and supply sections. That’s almost 300 people in total.” Suspended from the ceiling, after having been visually checked and dried, the sails are waiting to leave for the second floor, where packaging takes place
Coming from all the parachute regiments, the sails and their packages are therefore subject to unfailing monitoring. Automatic opening straps, hangers, sails: here we rely on the vigilance of the human eye, accustomed to spotting the slightest sign of wear or failure: “For us, repair is as important as folding, and quality control is equally rigorous in both cases, comments the officer. For folding, for example, the operation is divided into four phases. A team leader comes to control each phase. He looks at all the safety points and the technical gestures carried out by the folders. We then have a group leader, who will organize the different tables and pace the work. He’s doing a check.”
Paper forms are completed during the various checks, which complement the computer chips which record the controls: “The paper forms reassure users,” comments Captain Jean-Louis. But if they disappeared, there would be no danger. A conditioned parachute has necessarily been checked. IT monitoring is reliable.”
The final checks before the end of packaging, in four stages. The team leader signs the small pink sheet which will be slipped into the bag.
Paratroopers in their own right, the men of the 3rd RMAT make their six jumps: “They can find themselves with, on their back, a parachute that they have folded themselves,” notes the OSA.
Checks are also carried out by the workshop manager, an officer who comes to randomly take packaged equipment. “If necessary, he makes improvements or recalls instructions. These internal controls take place all year round,” he adds. The objective, obviously, is to achieve “0 defects”, a perfection which relies on the solid skills of the repairers and folders, and on rigorous and frequent checks.
Folders in action. 1,600 parachutes leave this military workshop every week.
In total, the folders handle sixteen parachutes per day, and spend a maximum of six hours on them. The rest is devoted to training for their paratrooper profession. In total, 56,000 packages were carried out by the Montauban equipment detachment, or “1600 per week”, concludes Captain Jean-Louis.
Specialists trained in two or three months
When the contract is signed, the new recruits do their initial training in Nîmes, where they learn the basics of the military profession. Then, they are assigned to the regiment after choosing their Mat-Ppara specialty. “We will then train them specifically in this profession,” continues Captain Jean-Louis, deputy senior officer. In two to three months, he learns to fold different types of parachutes: the basic, dorsal parachute (EPC, which equips the fighters), the ventral, which accompanies it to ensure security, which requires “a completely different folding”, notes the officer: “We will ask it for faster opening and other technicalities”. All in all, “a little-known profession, even within the Army,” he concludes.
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