French Military registrations since 1960                  

Related pages : French forces in Germany. Military registrations before 1960 (in French)

Introduction
- The military plates receive a registration number prefixed by the French tricolor insignia
- The vehicles belonging to the French Ministry of Defence are registered in a special series which includes vehicles belonging to the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and Common Services.
- The registration numbers are allocated by the "Direction Centrale du Matériel" of the Army for vehicles used by the Army, the administrative staff and foreign services to the armed forces and common services. Vehicles used by the Navy, the Air Force and the Gendarmerie are allocated marks by their own services.

Symbols
- The registration number of the Air Force vehicles is prefixed by wings across tricolor insignia .
- Special signs of armies, weapons or services can eventually be on military plates (example : anchor for the Navy, grenadine for the Gendarmerie, DGA inscription for the "Délégation Générale à l’Armement", caduceus for health services, SAM for Supplies services, CAD for Automobile Center of Defense, DCN inscription for the "Direction des Constructions Navales", etc.).

Registration number codification
- Each military vehicle whatever it is, receive a seven digit registration number until 1979 and an eight digit registration number since January, 1^st 1980. See more details below.

- Digits have the following meaning :

• The 1^st one identify the membership army of the vehicle (Army, Gendarmerie, Air Force, Navy, Foreign Services to the armed forces and Common Services).
• The 2^nd one until 1979, then the 2^nd and 3^rd ones since 1980 indicate the year of built or rebuilt of the vehicle.
• The next digit identifies the main category of the vehicle.
• The four last serie digits (order number in the year) are allocated in each main category in numerical order. However, it seems that serial number part (from 5001 and 7001) has been used. Indeed, the numbers 2921 5002, 2921 7001, 9931 7001, 9931 7009 and 9931 7010 has been noted.

Catégories of vehicles
- The concerned vehicles by a military registration are (distribution in main categories) :

• Passengers cars and coaches.
• Vans.
• Lorries, tractors, machines and cranes.
• Armoured vehicles.
• Motorcycles.
• Two and four wheeled trailers.

Specificities
- Cars which have received from the Ministry of Defence the authorisation to have a civil registration use the double civil and military registration system, namely :

• Visible civil registration.
• Registration to the military data processing file.

- In the case where place is missing to write the complete number, the four first digits must be written in a smaller size. For instance : Air Force two and four wheeled trailers rebuilt in 1985 : 7850 0023

- Some plates with an E prefix (Economats), depending of Common Services are followed with 6 digits. For instance : E 998121. These plates, now on a black background, had a red background when the " Economats " where located in Germany. A few "Services Généraux" plates are still registrered in the S serie : S 123456.

- Temporary registrations have a W 000000 format. For instance, in W 230602, the first digit is for gendarmerie (1:Army, 3:Air force, 4:Navy, 5: Common services and abroad).

- Other registrations having a prefix of one or more letters, such as F followed with 6 digits, may be issued for the Génie or the 25th Air Force Regiment (in Istres) : See for instance F 100047 spotted on the Eparses island of Juan de Nova.

- A RPMB series (see the picture below of a Gendarmerie boat trailer) has been notice for the years 1977 to 1983. The following numbers have been reported :

• 1977 : RPMB 7712 et RPMB 7724
• 1979 : RPMB 7902
• 1981 : RPMB 8103 et RPMB 8106
• 1983 : RPMB 8313

- And finally, some military trailers have strange registrations, such as this one, seen in 1999 : 7000 0012 (it has been registered in 1999 but on 2000 credits).

DETAILS ABOUT CODES

Membership army of the vehicle (army carrying out the cost on its own budget)

Year of manufacture or rebuilt (2^nd or 2^nd and 3^rd digits)

- The year is represented by the unit digit of the considered vintage.

- That digit can go from 0 to 9 for the decades 1960-1969 and 1970-1979.

- For the decade 1980-1989 and the next ones, the registration is composed by eight digits, the year being represented by the ten and the unit digits of the considered vintage.

Type of the vehicle according to whether it’s new or rebuilt (3^rd or 4^th digit)

Serial number
- The last four digits in the registration number are taken from ten annual series of numbers, each one going from 0001 to 9999, each series corresponding to the vehicle type indicated by the third digit (the fourth since January 1^st, 1980). The numbers are issued in numerical order without gaps, repetition or restarts at the end of the year. Nevertheless, in 1992 and 1993, series of some vehicles from 5001 and 7001 have been reported.

Examples of registration numbers
- New passengers car of Gendarmerie registered in 1992 : 2921 0001
- New motorcycle of the Army registered in 1978 : 689 0003
- New lorry of the Navy registered in en 1999 : 8993 0100

Page written by Jean-François Zuraw.