The Chief of the Defence Staff is the military head of the Armed Forces of the French Republic, overseeing all military operations. They are responsible to the Minister of the Armed Forces and their deputy is the Major General of the Defence Staff. Since the 1950s, the office has been held only by four-star generals (OF–9), either from the Army, the Navy, or the Air and Space Force. The current Chief is General Thierry Burkhard, who took the position on 22 July 2021.

The French Armed Forces are the military forces of France. They consist of four military branches – the Army, the Navy, the Air and Space Force and the National Gendarmerie. The National Guard serves as the French Armed Forces' military reserve force. As stipulated by France's constitution, the president of France serves as commander-in-chief of the French military. France has the eighth largest defence budget in the world and the second largest in the European Union (EU). It also has the largest military by size in the EU. A 2015 Credit Suisse report ranked the French Armed Forces as the world's sixth most powerful military.