The DGSE, the French foreign intelligence services, will be able to have a facelift in a few years. The program for the future headquarters of the agency, in place of the current “fort-neuf” in Vincennes, has just been launched by the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu. The key: a real “small town” which will accommodate 6,000 secret agents over 130,000 m2 of premises, spread over 20 hectares.
This major real estate program had become essential as the DGSE agents were so cramped in their barracks, in the 20e district of Paris. “Since 2017, the DGSE has increased its workforce by more than 1,000 agents. As part of the military programming law, the DGSE will once again recruit 700 people by 2030”explains Nicolas Lerner, director of the DGSE.
The complete transformation of the military influence of Fort Neuf de Vincennes, opposite the Château de Vincennes, offered an unexpected opportunity to the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
Of course, it will be necessary to destroy a good half of the existing buildings, transform the others to concentrate wiretapping processing stations and their supercomputer – currently buried in three basements of the Mortier barracks – but also install restaurants, amphitheatres, places of meetings and vast patios for strolling. All – security required – out of sight. The architects therefore worked on the discretion of the site which will remain enormous, the size of a small town with expanded functions and others more classically military, underlines the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu.
“We also intend to interact with other French services and also other foreign services with a capacity to receive.”
Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forcesat franceinfo
“It’s an environment that must be very qualitative, giving people with high added value sporting skills and catering skills,” adds the minister. Largely vegetated and wooded, the future headquarters should also allow people to work differently, hopes the director of “the box” as DGSE agents call it. “The second real estate challenge is the way in which our agents can work. How we can better combine work on set in a reactive, modular way. Also think about our capacity to provide information in a sovereign manner by 2030.”
This new headquarters, comfortable, functional and above all well equipped, must also serve as a “sales” argument and showcase for the French secret services who are recruiting. In any case, this is what the Minister of the Armed Forces hopes. “I also assume that what we do contributes to the overall loyalty and recruitment strategy. The fact that the best minds want to serve at 'the company' also contributes to what we show.”
But first, it will be necessary to build this new DGSE headquarters, delivery of which is scheduled for 2030. It may not seem like much, but everything must be perfectly secure during the work as well. The nearly 2,000 workers, engineers, architects and gardeners who will work on the site will all have to be certified “defense secret”.
