The Ministry of the Armed Forces, whose priority mission is to ensure the protection of France’s territory, population and interests throughout the world, produces data. Some data can be placed in open source, while others are protected by national defence secrecy and are therefore off-limits to the general public. In this binary world, however, there are intermediate cases where the data is both sensitive and of interest for research purposes. The ministry’s statistical service, S2E¹, which has the same prerogatives as the fifteen other ministerial statistical services (SSM), is at the heart of what seems at first sight to be an irreconcilable conflict: preserving data security while encouraging openness. In addition to the strict application of statistical confidentiality due to their sensitivity, some data may require additional mechanisms to be implemented to ensure dissemination or access, generating an impression of scarcity or even absence. The first reason for this impression of defence data scarcity is the desire not to allow sensitive information on armaments or the defence industry, or even battlefield data, to be disseminated freely. The second relates more directly to the statistician’s environment; the lack of defence-specific nomenclatures requires additional statistical investments. Not all the data produced by the Defence SSM falls into this category, and some do not present any problems of openness. Using a number of examples, this article describes the constraints imposed on the dissemination of statistical data in a context of increasing demand for open data, as well as the innovative mechanisms proposed to overcome them.

1. The Sous-direction Statistiques et Études économiques [Sub-Directorate of Statistics and Economic Studies] (S2E) formerly known as the Observatoire Économique de la Défense [Economic Observatory for Defence] (OED) is the Ministerial Statistical Office (MSO) of the Ministry of the Armed Forces.