According to comprehensive foreign media reports, recently, the French navy held a steel plate cutting ceremony for the first boat of the third generation ballistic missile nuclear submarine at Cherbourg Shipyard, marking the official commencement of construction of this class of boat. According to the French Navy, the third generation ballistic missile nuclear submarine, as the replacement of the Triumph class ballistic missile nuclear submarine in service, began planning in 2012 and set up a project in 2017. It is estimated that the first submarine will be delivered after 2035. After that, one will be built every five years, and a total of four will be built. France spent nearly 30 years to build a new generation of strategic nuclear submarines from planning and design to full delivery. What are the design features of this class of boats? Where will the development of the new generation of strategic nuclear submarines go? This paper interprets this.

Continuation of sea based nuclear deterrence

France has long pursued a strategy of limited nuclear deterrence. Since the early 1970s, France's first strategic nuclear submarine, the "Dreadful", carried out its first cruise mission with nuclear bombs, France has kept at least one ballistic missile nuclear submarine in an underwater combat readiness cruise state. In 1998, after abandoning land-based nuclear weapons, France focused on developing sea and air strategic nuclear forces. Among them, the sea based nuclear force has become the focus of the construction of the French nuclear force system because of its strong concealment and good damage effect. The number of nuclear warheads owned by the French sea based nuclear force accounts for about 80% of the total number of nuclear warheads.

At present, the French Navy has four Triumph class ballistic missile nuclear submarines in service. By 2035, among the four strategic nuclear submarines, even the latest one, No. 4, will have been in service for more than 25 years, facing problems such as outdated technology and outdated equipment. To this end, the French Navy plans to use four third-generation ballistic missile nuclear submarines to "one-to-one" replace Triumph class ballistic missile nuclear submarines to ensure the continuity of France's maritime strategic nuclear deterrence and nuclear counterattack capabilities.

Improve important technical performance

According to the public information of the French Navy Group, the hull design and combat technology performance of the third generation French ballistic missile nuclear submarine are improved on the basis of Triumph class ballistic missile nuclear submarine, focusing on the improvement and development of stealth, mobility and automation.

According to public data, the third generation ballistic missile nuclear submarine of France is about 150 meters long and has a full load displacement of 15000 tons. When completed, it will be the largest strategic nuclear submarine of France. The enlarged hull not only facilitates the installation of a new generation of nuclear reactor system, but also meets the carrying requirements of the improved M-51 intercontinental ballistic missile, and also provides ample space for the bow to be equipped with a large array sonar. In addition, this class of boats has a high degree of automation and intelligence. For example, equip an intelligent battle management system that can quickly process a large amount of sensor information. Thanks to the high level of automation, the number of its sailors is only 100.

The third generation French ballistic missile nuclear submarine is equipped with 16 vertical missile launchers and will carry the latest model of M-51 intercontinental ballistic missile. It has strong penetration, long range and high hit accuracy. Compared with the previous generation model, it carries more nuclear warheads, higher intelligence and stronger damage effect. In addition, the bow of the third-generation ballistic missile nuclear submarine is equipped with four heavy torpedo launch tubes, which can launch F-21 heavy torpedoes, next-generation anti-ship missiles, etc., and can also launch unmanned submarines, etc., which further improves the self-defense capability and sea attack combat capability of this class of submarine.

The third generation French ballistic missile nuclear submarine has a high mute performance. Because the hull is covered with a layer of anechoic tile, not only its own noise level is greatly reduced, but also the detection sound waves of active sonar can be effectively absorbed. In addition, the size of the hull increases, making the boat more space to carry equipment with better mute performance. In addition, the application of new technologies such as hull enclosure design, X-shaped tail rudder and pump jet propulsion further increases the concealment of the hull while improving the maneuverability, making it difficult to find and track this type of boat.

Steadily upgrade advanced technology

France has adopted a different technical route from the United States and Britain in the development of ballistic missile nuclear submarines, which is mainly reflected in the improvement and upgrading of mature technologies, and the pursuit of breakthroughs in key technologies.

Further improve nuclear reactor technology. According to the French Navy official in charge of the project, the power system of the third generation ballistic missile nuclear submarine uses the French made K-22 220MW pressurized water reactor, whose single reactor power is 46% higher than that of the previous generation nuclear reactor, and the fuel replacement cycle is longer. Its related technology will be used in the development of the new generation nuclear powered aircraft carrier reactor in France.

Comprehensively upgrade situational awareness. The third generation of French ballistic missile nuclear submarine will be equipped with a new generation of situational awareness system suite developed by Thales, including the next generation towed array sonar, super large side conformal array sonar, bow large array sonar and ultra-low frequency scanning detection system, as well as related interception array, echo sounder, underwater communication and other auxiliary equipment; There are also sensor data intelligent processing systems with analysis, positioning and recognition functions. These subsystems and equipment will form the third generation ballistic missile nuclear submarine situation awareness system to track, identify and confirm the "quietest" opponent. More importantly, these digital intelligent system suites have self-learning and automatic upgrade capabilities. Each new batch of systems will automatically update the equipment data from the previous batch to complete the dynamic upgrade. In addition, the third generation ballistic missile nuclear submarine may also carry hypersonic missiles with nuclear warheads as a new way to improve deterrence and counterattack capabilities.

It is not difficult to see that the French navy, which has always been independent, will continue to try new technologies and equipment during the nearly 30 years of building a new generation of strategic nuclear submarines. Its future development trend needs further attention. (Liang Chunhui, Zhang Jingrui)

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