The first new generation French nuclear attack submarine (SNA), the Suffren, which will enter active service on Friday June 3 in Brest, “illustrates the long-awaited renewal of the French submarine forces”, explained Thursday, June 2 on franceinfo Vincent Groizeleau, editor-in-chief of the site meretmarine.com, a site specializing in maritime news. The Suffren “game changer” for the military capacity of France. In terms of deterrence, “the French Navy is really getting back into the best of the world game”emphasizes Vincent Groizeleau.
franceinfo: How is this submarine different from the others?
Vincent Groizeleau: It illustrates very clearly the long-awaited renewal of the French submarine forces. Until now, the Navy had submarines which date for the oldest – the attack submarines – from the beginning of the 1980s. So it became urgent to replace them. This new generation, six new buildings that will replace the old ones, are completely different. We really don’t play in the same court anymore. We have boats that are larger, more powerful, much more discreet, with more armament capacity, which can do many more things, for example in terms of special operations or in terms of action towards land.
These will be the first French submarines to have cruise missiles, that is to say that when diving, they will be able to fire missiles like the famous American Tomahawk. There, it is the MDCN which is manufactured by MBDA in the center of France. These missiles will be able to hit land targets at a range of 1,000 km. So in a safe zone, for example in the middle of the Mediterranean, the submarine will be able to fire cruise missiles very far against land targets. And that is really something that changes the game. The French Navy is not the only one to have this capability. Very few marines have it. It will really change a lot of things.
Is it already operational?
It is operational. This is the first in a series. You have to understand that a nuclear submarine is about the most complicated thing man knows how to do. There is only one thing that is even more complicated than the nuclear attack submarine (SNA), it is the nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SNLE). These are the four large submarines that we have based in Brest and which alone provide the bulk of French nuclear deterrence. There is one permanently at sea. On board, there are 16 missiles. They are intercontinental missiles with nuclear warheads. This is what gives France a deterrent, in addition, of course, to the air component of the air force or the navy on the Charles de Gaulle.
The Suffren is very complicated. It took a long time to develop it. It is a boat that was delivered at the end of 2020. It took months to develop it, to do some corrective measures, to check that its capacities as they were imagined more than 15 years were right there. So yeah, now he’s mission ready, he’s battle ready. And as of tomorrow, he can leave, whether for the Mediterranean, the Atlantic or the other side of the world. Because the enormous advantage of these nuclear-powered submarines is their autonomy. And as the French Navy demonstrated last year, no sea can escape it. She was able to send an SNA to the Pacific in 2021. So, tomorrow, we can send this boat wherever we want.
Does this significantly increase France’s deterrent force?
Deterrence, yes in the conventional sense of the term, not nuclear, of course. Because these submarines are nuclear powered, but do not carry nuclear weapons like SSBNs. Submariners tend to say, there are two types of boats: submarines and targets. For a merchant ship or a military vessel, the submarine is an obsession, particularly this type of new generation submarine, extremely discreet, very difficult to detect. So there, indeed, the French Navy is really getting back into the best of the world game.