[2] It was established on 24 April 1947,[1][2] by ministerial decree as the Special Weapons Test Center (CEES, Centre d'essais d'engins spéciaux) for use by the French Army.

Its remote location in the middle of the Saharan Desert and its relative closeness to the Equator (compared with Metropolitan France) made it an attractive launch site for missiles and orbital rockets.

On 12 June 1945, less than a month after V-E Day, the War Department ordered the study of self-propelled projectiles (rockets).

The Center aimed initially to attempt to reconstruct the V-2 rocket based on blueprints captured from V-2 launch sites in France.

In November 1946, a mission arrived at Colomb-Béchar, French Algeria, to study the site's suitability as a missile range and launch facility.

In 1967, the order to evacuate the site was given and the regiment was the last unit to leave the South for the French base of Mers-el-Kébir.

French withdrawal from the CIEES facility and other military bases in Algeria was stipulated by the 1962 Évian Accords that ended the Algerian War of Independence.