President of France Sarkozy unveils new French nuclear submarine
March 22, 2008
France’s Sarkozy, in first defense speech, says new French nuclear submarine has role in France’s strategy of disarmament and nuclear deterrence.
President of France Nicolas Sarkozy was present Friday at the introduction in Cherbourg of Le Terrible, France’s newest nuclear submarine. It joins France’s current fleet of nuclear subs Le Triomphant (launched in 1997), Le Téméraire (1999) and Le Vigilant (2004). Le Terrible will be placed in active service in 2010.
Le Terrible, designed to be virtually silent and undetectable by radar, is 138 m (453 feet) long and can carry a crew of 111 at a rate of 25 knots (29 mph) underwater. The new French sub is armed with 16 M-51 sea-to-land nuclear missiles. The range of the missiles is an improvement over French missiles already in service. The new French missles can hit targets 9,000 km (5,592 miles) away, while the present ones only travel 6,000 km (3,728 miles).
While the advent of a new high-tech nuclear submarine in France would seem to be an escalation in the global arms race, President of France insisted in his speech that just the opposite was the case. He said “France has never participated in any arms race,” and pointed out that the nuclear subs were for proamrily for deterrence. He also explained that they would substitute for many more nuclear arms that would be taken out of service as part of a French policy of arms reduction. Sarkozy specified that France would maintain the smallest nuclear defense capability possible consistent with its national defense strategy. He also pledged that France would be “completely transparent” in disclosing the number of nuclear warheads in its arsenal, and called on other countries around the world to follow France’s lead. He made the point that no other country was as forthright as France, saying that the country had 300 nuclear warheads.
Sarkozy singled out Iran as a potential threat against which France needed to maintain a strong nuclear defense. He warned that any attack on France would be met with a swift and devastating nuclear response that would be inacceptably costly for the attacker and “inconsistent with their objectives.”
The speech, Sarkozy’s first on the subject of defense since assuming the presidency of France, came on the heels of his meeting earlier the same day in Paris with US Republican presidential nominee John McCain, with whom he discussed France’s taking a more active role in NATO and a stronger European defense.
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