Online Encyclopedia
Force de frappe
The Force de frappe (French: Deterrence, literally Striking Force) is the designation of what used to be a triad of air, sea and land based French Nuclear Forces, part of the Military of France.
It was designed in the 1950s by General de Gaulle, mainly as a mean to ensure safety and liberty of action of France toward both USSR and USA.
The land element contained the Pluton and the Hades, mobile tactical and strategic missiles of limited range, designed to be launched at approaching Russian armies from the east. The Pluton missile was retired in 1993 and its successor the Hades was produced in limited numbers in the 1990s and placed in storage in 1992.
Since there was no hope to counter a full-scale invasion of Europe by the mean of conventional weapons (reminiscent of the 1940 Battle of France), these tactical weapons were meant as a "warning shot" that would tell the enemy that further advance would trigger a full-scale nuclear attack on its main cities. This "worse-case" doctrine is called Stratégie du faible au fort ("Weak-to-strong strategy"); the idea behind is that a full-scale nuclear war would be lost by both opponents, and that a stronger opponent, having more to lose, will therefore refrain of proceeding further (like being the best boxer in a gunfight -- see MAD).
France does not have any IRBMs any more since the only IRBM base, at the "Plateau d'Albion" in the Vaucluse region, was deactivated in 1996.
The other two long range elements of the triad are still operative. The navy has a nuclear ballistic submarine fleet made up of one SSBN Redoutable-class (L'Inflexible) and three SSBNs of the Triomphant-class (Le Triomphant, Le Temeraire, Le Vigilant). One additional SSBN's Le Triomphant class is under construction.
The air force has 60 Mirage 2000 NK2 long range fighter bombers carrying ASMP short-range attack missiles with nuclear warheads.
France has the fourth largest nuclear force in the world after the USA, Russia and China.