[2][3] After a year of post-academy training, Burkhard graduated as infantry and was posted for continual service in the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment in Corsica.

Burkhard would later be involved on Opération Licorne in 2006 during the civil war in Côte d’Ivoire, before serving as a deputy under Admiral Christophe Prazuck in 2007.

Burkhard later served as a deputy communications advisor to the Chief of the Defence Staff from 2007 to 2008, and was later deployed to Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Burkhard would later serve as the commander of the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion from 2008 to 27 July 2010 joined the Information and Public Relations Service of the Armed Forces in 2010, before being named as the communications advisor to the Chief of the Defence Staff from August 2010 to 2013.

[6][1][3] His appointment came after the announcement of the resignation of General François Lecointre on 13 July 2021 as a move to avoid being dragged in political debates before the 2022 French presidential election and on the initiation of drawing down military operations on Mali.