page_title: Force de dissuasion
section_title: Sea-based component
hierarchical_section_title: Force de dissuasion / Components / Sea-based component
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Le Redoutable, premier SNLE français. English: Le Redoutable, first ballistic missile submarine of the French Navy.
context_page_description: The Force de frappe, or Force de dissuasion after 1961, is the designation of what used to be a triad of air-, sea- and land-based nuclear weapons intended for dissuasion, the French term for deterrence. The French Nuclear Force, part of the French military, is the third largest nuclear-weapons force in the world, after the nuclear triads of the Russian Federation and the United States.
  France has deactivated all land-based nuclear missiles. On 27 January 1996, France conducted its last nuclear test in the South Pacific and then signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in September 1996. In March 2008, French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed reports giving the actual size of France's nuclear arsenal and he announced that France would reduce its French Air Force-carried nuclear arsenal by 30%, leaving the Force de Frappe with 290 warheads.
  In addition to its nuclear military programme, France has a large peaceful nuclear programme and ranks as one of the world's largest generators of nuclear power.
context_section_description: The French Navy includes a nuclear strategic branch, the Force Océanique Stratégique, which has contained as many as 5 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.
  6 Redoutable class submarines, armed with 16 M4 IRBMs entered service between 1971 and 1985. The last of these, the L'Inflexible (S 615), was retired from service in 2008.
  1 Le Terrible (S 619) commissioned in 2010, armed with 16 of the more modern M51 missile, successfully tested in 2010.
  3 Triomphant-class SSBNs: the Le Triomphant (S 616), the Le Téméraire (S 617), the Le Vigilant (S 618), armed with 16 of the less modern M45 missile. They will be upgraded to the new M51 missile by 2018, Le Vigilant will be the first to be upgraded, starting in 2011.
caption: The Redoutable, the first French nuclear missile submarine.
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