Force de frappe

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The Force de frappe (common name, literally 'clout'; officially Force de dissuasion nucléaire de la France , ' French Nuclear Deterrent') is the nuclear force of the French armed forces .

About the designation

The force de frappe is almost never mentioned in official parlance - dissuader , ie “to talk out, dissuade, keep from; also: put off ", and therefore the opposite of Persuasion , sounds more diplomatic and reserved than frapper which the element of the surprising, panic-like and possibly even Insidious connotations (cf.. astound ).

Background of the creation

The Force de dissuasion nucléaire has been officially in existence since 1958, when during a crucial phase of the Cold War the nuclear armament of the French armed forces was officially decided by the President of the newly founded Fifth Republic , Charles de Gaulle . Similar considerations already existed in the Fourth Republic under Prime Minister Mendès France . The French force de dissuasion was originally intended as a deterrent against the threat posed by the military potential of the Warsaw Pact ( USSR and its allies or satellite states ). In addition, the intention was to break away from the dependence on the USA in questions of military strategy and to revalue France to a great power . In 1958 the Algerian war was reaching its climax. In January of that year the Treaty of Rome establishing the EEC came into force; At the end of November, the West was confronted with Khrushchev's Berlin ultimatum . At that time France was still a colonial power with extensive possessions in Africa ; However, 14 of them became independent in the African year 1960.

On February 13, 1960, France carried out a first nuclear test in Algeria ; three more followed. All four were surface tests in a populated area in the Algerian Sahara near Reggane . As a result, up to 30,000 people suffered damage as a result.

The first Mirage IV bombers were put into service in 1964/65 . This meant that the air component of the French nuclear force was initially ready for use.
The force de dissuasion extended over all components of the “nuclear triad” (air, land, sea), whereby the land-based weapons are no longer available today. France is currently the fourth most powerful nuclear power in the world - after the USA , Russia and China and ahead of Great Britain .

History and future

A mobile launch pad for Pluton short-range missiles

The equipment then and now

The airborne function was initially taken over by the supersonic Mirage IV bomber with a range of 1,500 kilometers. The operations center of the Forces aériennes stratégiques (FAS; the strategic air force founded in 1964) is located in underground bunkers in Taverny near Paris . In 2011 it is to be relocated to the already existing operations center at Base aérienne 942 Lyon-Mont Verdun near Lyon . From there ( as of 2008) u. a. Commanded 50–60 Mirage 2000N equipped with nuclear weapons , with a combat radius of around 1500 km. The supersonic aircraft are currently equipped with the ASMP guided missile with a range of around 300 km. Two squadrons are stationed in Luxeuil-les-Bains, southwest of Strasbourg , and a third in Istres, northwest of Marseille .

Le Redoutable ('The Fearful'), the first French nuclear submarine

Since 1971, nuclear-powered submarines , the Force océanique stratégique (FOST), which are equipped with SLBMs , have served as sea-based launch vehicles ; currently the Triomphant class . France maintains a total of four sous-marin nucléaire lanceur d'engins (SNLE, German: nuclear submarine with rocket launch ramps ), two of which are constantly kept ready for use on the high seas. Each of these submarines has 16 missiles, currently still of the M45 type , each with up to six autonomous nuclear warheads (MIRV) and a range of 6000 kilometers.

M45 and M51 ICBMs in the hulls of the French nuclear submarines SNLE (type Redoutable, left) and SNLE-NG (type Triomphant, right)

The home port of FOST is the Île Longue off Brest . Its command center was in Houilles ( Yvelines department ) until 2000 and is now also in Brest. Around 2,300 men serve at FOST. Around half of the Force de dissuasion's budget is spent on them. The Navy also has an Aéronavale squadron with 10 Dassault Super Étendard fighter jets . They have a range of around 1,800 km, can also carry ASMP guided weapons and are a. stationed aboard the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle .

From 2009/10 the nuclear-capable Mirage 2000N and Super Étendard of the Air Force and Navy are to be replaced by Dassault Rafale .

Medium-range missiles of the type S2 with single warheads of 120 kilotons were land -based from 1971 (referred to in French as ICBMs ) , replaced from 1980 by S3 with 1 MT each. On the Plateau d'Albion in the Vaucluse department ( Base aérienne 200 Apt-Saint-Christol 44 ° 3 ′  N , 5 ° 30 ′  E ), construction work began in the 1960s on four underground silo positions for the stationing of these strategic ballistic missiles of over 3,000 km range. In the final stage, 18 missiles were installed on this position system north of Apt (Vaucluse) - also assigned to the strategic air force as base aérienne 200 . An increase to 27 missiles, which was planned by around 1980, was ultimately refrained from, mainly for cost reasons. According to an order issued by President Jacques Chirac in September 1996, the S3 were dismantled and the silo positions abandoned, some of which are now used for civilian purposes. At the same time, Chirac ordered the cessation of nuclear tests. Outside of the actual force de frappe, there were several artillery regiments with mobile tactical short-range missiles of the Pluton (until 1993) and Hades (1984 to 1997) type in the French army . Tactical warplanes of the Armée de l'air ( Dassault Mirage III , SEPECAT Jaguar ) were also intended for the use of nuclear weapons. In 1992 France announced its intention not to produce any more plutonium for nuclear weapons. Production in the Marcoule nuclear plant (1958 to 1992) was stopped and the dismantling of the reprocessing plant began in 1998 . Plutonium for civil use continues to be produced at the La Hague reprocessing facility.

For security reasons, a multi-level system was created for the use of nuclear weapons, which is referred to as the " atomic key " for short . The first stage is an electronic numeric code with which the president can open the so-called atomic case. The case is used to activate the nuclear weapons. This code is changed regularly. The president has to learn it by heart. With the help of an officer, the President selects the targets from a given list in the nuclear bunker ten meters below the Élysée Palace. The "Jupiter" nuclear bunker, created in 1978, is 15 by 30 meters and only accessible to the president and a few advisors. The command room has a direct connection to the underground command center in Taverny or, in the future, Mont Verdun.

How many warheads France actually has at its disposal remains a state secret. Most recently their number was estimated at 348, of which 288 are submarine-based. When the last submarine, the Le Terrible , was launched in March 2008, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that the number of warheads would be reduced by a third, bringing the number well below 300.

In 2016, the French nuclear weapons are specified as 48 M51 missiles and 54 ASMPA missiles.

Further development

After the "submarine rocket launchers" Le Triomphant 1997 and Le Téméraire were put into service at the end of 1999, the technology is apparently to be particularly advanced in this field. At the end of 2004, Le Vigilant was handed over to the armed forces. By 2010, the M51 missile series should be ready for use on the Le Terrible submarine launched on March 21, 2008 . The M51 should have a range of 8,000 kilometers. The first sea-based test shot took place on January 27, 2010.

Against the background of the waiver of nuclear tests , the government provided around 388 million euros in 2004 for a simulation program in which u. a. a supercomputer and laser technology are used. The result is the world's first commissioning of a nuclear weapon system that was developed without a real nuclear test. The ASMP-A , an airborne medium-range missile, was presented to the public in 2009.

costs

The force de dissuasion causes annual costs of more than three billion euros, which corresponds to around a tenth of the French defense budget. It is also controversial in military circles because it is feared that conventional armament would fall behind. For the development of new types of nuclear weapons alone, around 17 billion euros were budgeted in the military planning framework in force from 2003 to 2008.

Nuclear weapons tests

The islands of Mururoa and Fangataufa in the Pacific Ocean were used as France's test site for 210 nuclear weapons tests from 1966 to 1996.

Change in nuclear doctrine?

The Force de dissuasion nucléaire suddenly came into the public eye again on January 19, 2006, when French President Jacques Chirac retaliated against “leaders” of states that use terrorist means in connection with the diplomatic crisis over Iran's nuclear program non-conventional form ”threatened. However, since 2003 at the latest, France had reserved the right to use nuclear weapons against “ rogue states ” (see web links) . For this purpose u. a. the equipment of the sea-based missiles reduced in order to be able to carry out blows below the threshold of the nuclear overkill . One cannot only have the choice between [the complete] annihilation (of the enemy) and [one's own] destruction, according to Chirac. It is currently unclear whether the French military has stopped the temporarily intended development of "mini nukes" (nuclear weapons with "limited" effects) ( as of early 2006). So far, the sea-based missiles have mainly been equipped with multiple warheads (MIRVs) which, if fired, would have caused extensive, largely indiscriminate devastation in the target area.

However, there appears to be still undisputed that the French nuclear doctrine no nuclear preemptive strikes ( " preventive strikes ") provides - with the proviso, however, that it is about as part of the NATO - strategy in the case of an already unleashed conventional war total a first strike (the nuclear first strike ) reserves, and has been for decades. (France has some reservations about the NATO strategy anyway, which is reflected in France's doctrine that one does not want to remain dependent on any allies for the ability to conduct global military operations.)

German participation

According to information that Spiegel wants to have at its disposal, in 2007 French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered the German government ( Merkel I cabinet ) a share in the decision-making power over French nuclear weapons. According to Spiegel, however, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier unanimously rejected this .

In 2017, the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the London International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), François Heisbourg , advocated German co-financing of the planned modernization of the Force de frappe. This could have been linked to a limited say. This would be incompatible with the draft Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty (Article 1, Paragraph 1c). The draft was discussed among 132 UN states in 2017. The German federal government boycotted this process. The left and green opposition called for participation.

See also

literature

  • Ansbert Baumann: “Hurray for France!” On February 13, 1960, the first French atomic bomb exploded. In: THEN. The magazine for history and culture , issue 2/2010, pp. 10–13.
  • Dominique Pestre, Collectif: Deux siècles d'histoire de l'armement en France: De Gribeauval à la force de frappe. CNRS, 2005, ISBN 2-271-06302-7 .
  • Simone Wisotzki: The nuclear weapons policy of Great Britain and France. Campus textbook, 1st edition 2002, ISBN 3-593-37031-X ( PDF ).
  • John Lewis Gaddis , Ernest May, Philip Gordon (Eds.): Cold War Statesmen Confront the Bomb: Nuclear Diplomacy Since 1945. Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-19-829468-9 .
  • Moch Jules: Not a la force de frappe. Robert Laffont, 1992 (1st edition 1963), ISBN 2-221-03227-6 .
  • Georg Picht , Hans Dieter Müller: The Force de frappe. Walter, 1965.
  • Georg Picht: What is the Force des frappe? De Gaulle's atomic solo effort and the defense of Europe. In: CW, No. 49, December 4, 1964, p. 3 f.

Web links

Commons : Force de frappe  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Video
  2. ↑ Thomas Schneider: 30,000 victims from French nuclear tests? ( Memento from May 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) ARD-Weltspiegel, January 18, 2009.
  3. ^ A. Cowell: France to Pay Nuclear Test Victims . The New York Times, March 24, 2009.
  4. ^ Kurt Andersen, Russell Leavitt: Atomic Test Case . Time Magazine, April 26, 2006
  5. ↑ Friedrich Wiener, The Armies of the NATO States, Ueberreuter, Vienna, 1966, p. 61.
  6. ↑ See website des Ministère des Armées 2017–2018 .
  7. ↑ netmarine.net: Redoutable
  8. ↑ netmarine.net: FOST
  9. ↑ France is clearly disarming nuclear power ( Memento from March 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (Tagesschau.de, March 21, 2008)
  10. ↑ France to reduce nuclear warheads (BBC, March 21, 2008) (Eng.)
  11. ^ "Le président Hollande dévoile les capacités nucléaires françaises" Zone militaire, opex360.com, 19 February 2015
  12. ^ Agence France Press, Succès du premier tir du nouveau missile nucléaire M51 depuis un sous-marin , ( French: "Success of the first launch of the new M51 nuclear missile from a submarine"), accessed on February 14, 2010
  13. ^ Website of the French Ministry of Defense, L'ASMP-A, nouvelle arme de la dissuasion ("The ASMP-A, new weapon of deterrence") - accessed on October 25, 2009
  14. ↑ Surprising advance: Sarkozy offered Germany nuclear weapons (Spiegel Online, September 15, 2007)
  15. ↑ Peter Dausend and Michael Thumann: Does the EU need the bomb? Zeit Online, February 16, 2017, accessed May 28, 2017 .
  16. ^ Draft Convention on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons , accessed May 23, 2017.
  17. ↑ Participation in talks on the ban on nuclear weapons is required . German Bundestag, March 23, 2017, accessed on May 26, 2017.