This glossary is to expand my basic knowledge in the english military vocabulary in order to work in this sector of translation.
Airborne forces
Ground combat units carried by aircraft and airdropped into battle zones, typically by parachute drop or air assault. Parachute-qualified infantry and support personnel serving in airborne units are also known as paratroopers.
fr: Troupes aéroportée
Airstrike
Offensive operation carried out by aircraft.
Example: To clear out future positions, the Germans decided to carry out an airstrike over the city.
fr: Bombardement aérien
Army group / Front
An army group is a military organization consisting of several field armies, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area. An army group is the largest field organization handled by a single commander – usually a full general or field marshal – and it generally includes between 400,000 and 1,000,000 soldiers.
The Russian, sovietic or polish equivalent is : Front (not to be mixed with the frontline)
fr: Groupe d'armées / Front
Artillery barrage
A line or barrier of exploding artillery shells, created by continuous and co-ordinated fire of a large number of guns.
Example: To prevent further rapid territory gains from the ennemy and settle positions, the army decided to create an artillery barrage
fr: Tir de barrage
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are exclusively infantry, while in others battalions are unit-level organizations.
fr: Bataillon
Brigade
Major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division.
Example: The authorities comitted a whole brigade for this misson
fr: Brigade
Bunker Buster
A bunker buster is a type of munition that is designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground, such as military bunkers.
fr: Bombes à charge pénétrante / Bunker Buster
Corps
an operational formation, sometimes known as a field corps, which consists of two or up to five divisions and anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 personnel.
fr: Corps d'armée
Counter-offensive
a counter-offensive is a large-scale strategic offensive military operation, usually operated from a defensive standpoint after halting the opponent's advances and exhaustion of the opponent's forces, in order to push back the ennemy.
Example: In a rapid counteroffensive, Ukraine recaptured much of Kharkiv province, in the northeast of the country, in September and also has been making gains in Kherson province, in the south.
— Michael Schwirtz, BostonGlobe.com, 22 Oct. 2022
fr: Contre-offensive
Defence Industrial Base
Refers to a government's industrial assets that are of direct or indirect importance for the production of equipment for a country's armed forces.
fr: Base industrielle et technologique de défense
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 6,000 and 25,000 soldiers.
In most armies, it is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps.
Example: The commitment of significant elements of at least three major Russian divisions to offensive operations in this sector indicates the Russian offensive has begun.
Nuclear equivalent of the conventional bunker buster. The non-nuclear component of the weapon is designed to penetrate soil, rock, or concrete to deliver a nuclear warhead to an underground target. These weapons would be used to destroy hardened, underground military bunkers or other below-ground facilities.
fr: Arme explosive à forte pénétration dans le sol
Field Army
A field army (or numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps. It may be subordinate to an army group. Air armies are the equivalent formations in air forces, and fleets in navies. A field army is composed of 80,000 to 300,000 soldiers.
fr: Armée (unité)
Frontline / Front line / Front-line
The position(s) closest to the area of conflict of an armed force's personnel and equipment, usually referring to land forces. When a front (an intentional or unintentional boundary) between opposing sides forms, the front line is the area where each side's forces are engaged in conflict.
Example: The French sent their men to the frontline like pigs to the butcher.
fr: Ligne de front
Ground attack
An attack using ground forces, as opposed to air or naval forces
Example: The area has been under sustained air and ground attack for four months and the civilian cost has been brutal.
The Guardian (2019)
fr: Attaque au sol / Attaque terrestre
Milblogger
A blogger, a military service member or someone usually with a close relationship to armed forces, who blogs, often from the front lines, about an ongoing war.
Example: A small, fringe group of pro-war Russian milbloggers called for the Russian government to repeal the censorship laws against discrediting the Russian military.
fr: blogueur militaire
Military draft / conscription
Practice of ordering people by law to join the armed forces.
Example: The Kremlin passed legislation to use tools of digital authoritarianism to digitize and improve the effectiveness of issuing summonses and crack down on Russian draft dodgers.
fr: Conscription
Night Operation / Night OP
Tactical manoeuver or attack operated at night to take advantage of the dark or the time.
Example: Some of Wagner PMC's elements only make terrain gains through night OPs.
fr: Opération nocturne / Opération de nuit / Opé nocturne
Platoon
In the Army, the sub-subunit between company and section levels, constituded of 20 to 55 men, so 2 sections or more or three or four vehicles
Example: Two whole platoons were mobilized to push through the ennemy's blockade
fr: Peloton
Pre-emptive strike / Pre-emptive attack
A nuclear attack designed to destroy as much as possible of the other side's offensive weapons in the belief that it had begun, or was about to begin, launching a first strike
Example: Seeing the massive amount of ammunition and troops China was starting to deploy at the border with Russia, the Minister of Defence ordered to launch a pre-emptive strike on those positions.
Independent corporation that offers military services to national governments, international organizations, and substate actors.
Example: Vladimir Putin uses the help of the Wagner PMC for the war in Ukraine.
fr: Société militaire privée (SMP)
Protracted war.
A long-lasting conflict, with nothing to indicate a potential end to it.
Example: How Russia can rise to the task of waging a protracted war without drafting more men to fight it was unclear, although the Kremlin says many of the soldiers conscripted in September have yet to see a battlefield.
fr: Guerre prolongée
Rooting
Déplacement et transport des forces et de leurs soutiens associés. Les forces
peuvent bénéficier d’appuis et de renforcements divers en capacité de mouvement, en
moyens et en capacités de transport.
Mobile vehicle with a dedicated anti-aircraft capability.
Example: To counter the heavy aerial strikes on the frontline, the army deployed anti-aircraft vehicles.
fr: Véhicule antiaérien
Shell (firearms)
Casing (cardboard, metal, etc.) [...] containing the charge of a firearm
Example: As the enraged wounded bear came close to him, Michel loaded two new shotgun shells.
fr: Cartouche
Shell / Artillery shell
Projectile fired by field artillery guns.
Example: The soldier could not make a single step forward, as artillery shells were falling all over the position.
fr: Obus
Strategic rooting
Movement, which refers to the transportation and transit operations of forces and their supports from their stationing area to the theater of engagement or between theaters. AS includes pre- and post-transits, usually surface, and strategic inter-theater transports, usually sea and air, occasionally surface.
fr: Acheminement Stratégique
Support
The action of a grouping or detachment that assists, covers, extends, or supports the work of another element.
fr: Appui
Theater
In warfare, a theater is an area in which important military events occur or are in progress. A theater can include the entirety of the airspace, land and sea area that is or that may potentially become involved in war operations.
Example: ISW previously assessed that these preemptive presidential pardons may be driving further recruitment within penal colonies and likely empower Wagner to operate with greater impunity in the theater.
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance and carries aircraft ordnance such as missiles, ATGMs, and/or bombs in hardpoints for drone strikes. These drones are usually under real-time human control, with varying levels of autonomy.
Example: The UCAVs launched helped the artillery brigade to make accurate shots over the ennemy's positions.
