A single EFA, in ferry configuration, has a length of 34.55m on a loading surface of 96 m2 is ready in less than five minutes for the transportation of up to 70 tons of goods.

The EFA is the heir to the first self-propelled bridging ferry invented in 1955 by the French military engineer and general Jean Gillois (born in Châteaubriant 1909).

was successively adopted by the German, British and to a limited extent American militaries, and was used by Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

It allows an armed force to avoid the heavy and bulky convoys that barges brought in by road, which are sensitive to enemy attacks.

In practice, by 2014 it would seem that there were only four AETs per regiment, the rest being distributed between the Engineering School, the Training Park and the industrial owner of the conditioning contract.