For the first time in around 30 years, France has put three of its four ballistic missile submarines, to sea at the same time besides that on March 30, France successfully test-fired ASMPA nuke missile from Rafale fighter.
The sudden change in the situation in Eastern Europe and Ukraine has made the whole of Europe tremble. As the only nuclear power in the EU, France, of course, must come out to “show its strength”.
According to local media, France has sent 3 of the 4 Triomphant class strategic nuclear submarines to the open sea for cruise, leaving only 1 for maintenance and upgrading. This has been extremely rare in the roughly 30 years since the end of the Cold War. The Triomphant class ballistic missile nuclear submarine has a displacement of 14,000 tons (submerged). Each nuclear submarine has 16 vertical launch systems, which can be equipped with 16 M-51 submarine-launched ballistic missiles developed by France. The range of these missile can reach more than 10,000 kilometers. Moreover, the M-51 missile also has the ability to carry split-guided warheads. The nuclear submarine itself can also carry torpedoes and anti-ship missiles, with self-defense capabilities.
In addition to sending 3 nuclear submarines to sea at the same time, France also tested “Rafale” fighter jets and recently launched an ASMP-A standoff missile without a nuclear warhead. The essence of this missile is a nuclear warhead carrier, which can be equipped with nuclear warhead with the equivalent of 300,000 tons of TNT, and the “Rafale M” carrier-based aircraft parked on the French Navy’s “Charles de Gaulle” nuclear-powered aircraft carrier also has the ability to launch ASMP-A standoff missiles. At the current time when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is tense, the “Charles de Gaulle” aircraft carrier, like the US and NATO fleets, is conducting an alert cruise in the Mediterranean Sea.
The “nuclear strike” capabilities of France successively showed, this is obviously to show the nuclear muscles in front of Russia. After all, Russia is also a nuclear power. Although Russia’s special military operations in Ukraine did not involve nuclear weapons, before the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russia had launched a large-scale strategic military exercise. During the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Russia also mentioned the issue of nuclear weapons. Russia believes that the best option in the current situation is peace talks, but if Russia is threatened, it will not rule out the nuclear option.
Compared with France, Russia’s nuclear arsenal and nuclear arsenal are undoubtedly more powerful, because Russia has thousands of nuclear warheads, and also has a complete nuclear triad, including air strategic bombers such as Tu-160 and Tu-95. , which can launch long-range nuclear cruise missiles; Russia’s Borei-class strategic nuclear submarine can also launch “Bulava” ICBMs; in addition, Russia also has a series of land-based ICBMs such as RS-28 Sarmat (The most powerful ICBM in the world)
Therefore, it is not very meaningful for France to show its nuclear muscles to Russia. An important goal of Russia’s special military operations in Ukraine is to stop NATO’s eastward expansion. The United States and Western countries should realize the seriousness of the problem and stop escalating the situation. Only when Western countries do not worsen the situation will there be room for peaceful negotiation in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.