Hexagone Balard

Hexagone Balard (French pronunciation: [ɛɡzaɡon balaʁ, -ɡɔn -]) is the headquarters of the French Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Armed Forces. Inaugurated in 2015, more than 9,300 personnel from the French Army, French Navy, French Air and Space Force and Delegate General of Armaments (DGA) have moved into this 165,000 m² (1,780,000 sq ft)^[1] white opaque glass-fronted building,^[2] on 41 acres (17 ha),^[3] from previously separate headquarters for each service branch. It reportedly cost around 4 billion euros to build.^[4]

Hexagone Balard
Hexagone Balard in 2016
General information
Status	Completed
Location	Paris
Coordinates	48°50′08″N 2°16′34″E
Current tenants	Ministry of the Armed Forces
Construction started	2012; 13 years ago (2012)
Completed	5 November 2015; 9 years ago (2015-11-05)
Cost	€4.2 billion
Owner	French Republic
Dimensions
Other dimensions	420 000 m²
Technical details
Floor area	13.5 ha

History

In 2011, the French Government awarded the Opale-Défense consortium a contract, for financing, designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining the complex for thirty years.^[5] Agence Nicolas Michelin & Associés^[6] designed the seven-story command and control center, on a former army air base near the Balard (Paris Métro) in the 15th arrondissement.^[7][8]

As a military base, the command of the site is handed over to the Major General of the Defence Staff, deputy to the Chief of the Defence Staff.

Personnel transferred from historic buildings in central Paris to this site in the south of the city, excepting the Defence Minister who remains in central Paris.^[9] Half of the complex is renovation,^[2] including an old navy building, designed in 1934 by Gustave and Auguste Perret.^[6] The complex boasts a real drawbridge, interior gardens,^[10] missile-strike-resistant walls and an underground operational room.^[11]

Appearance

Images of the complex (as well as all military-related and sensitive government buildings in France) can't be seen on Bing Maps, Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Street View for national security reasons, yet Here WeGo, and Yandex Maps do not censor the satellite image.^[12][13]

Only the faceted roof is visible from the elevated ring road.^[14] It has the largest solar panel roof in Paris.^{[citation needed]}

Headquarters

The complex serves as the primary headquarters of the Armed Forces. As such, the entirety of the command structure of the military is housed here:

• Chief of the Defence Staff
  • Major General of the Defence Staff
• Chief of Staff of the Army
  • Major General of the Army
• Chief of Staff of the Navy
  • Major General of the Navy
• Chief of Staff of the Air and Space Force
  • Major General of the Air and Space Force

However, the civil administration of the Ministry and the Minister are still headquartered at the Hôtel de Brienne in the 7th arrondissement of Paris.