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History | |
---|---|
France | |
Builder | DCN Cherbourg |
Laid down | November 1964 |
Launched | 29 March 1967 |
Commissioned | 1 December 1971 |
Decommissioned | 1 December 1991 |
Stricken | December 1991 |
Homeport | Île Longue |
Fate | Museum ship |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Redoutable-classsubmarine |
Displacement | 8,000 tons (submerged) |
Length | 128 metres (420 ft) |
Beam | 10.6 metres (35 ft) |
Draught | 10 metres (33 ft) |
Decks | 3 |
Installed power | nuclear |
Propulsion | One GWC PAR K15 PWR, 16,000 shp, HEU <= 90% [1] |
Speed | over 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
Range | Essentially unlimited |
Complement |
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Sensors and processing systems |
|
Armament |
Le Redoutable (S 611) was the lead boat of her class of ballistic missile submarines in the French Marine Nationale.
Commissioned on 1 December 1971, the boat was the first French SNLE (Sous-marin Nucléaire Lanceur d'Engins, "Device-Launching Nuclear Submarine"). The boat was initially fitted with 16 M1 MSBS (Mer-Sol Balistique Stratégique) submarine-launched ballistic missiles , delivering 450 kilotons at 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi). In 1974, the boat was refitted with the M2 missile, and later with the M20, each delivering a one-megatonne warhead at a range over 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi). Le Redoutable ("formidable" or "fearsome" in French) was the only ship of the class not to be refitted with the M4 missile.
Le Redoutable had a 20-year duty history, with 51 patrols of 70 days each, totalling an estimated 90,000 hours of diving and 1.27 million kilometres (790,000 mi) of distance, the equivalent of travelling 32 times around the Earth. [2]
The boat was decommissioned in 1991. In 2000, the boat was removed from the water and placed in a purpose-built 136 metres (446 ft) dry dock, [2] and over two years was made into an exhibit. This was a monumental task, the biggest portion of which was removing the nuclear reactor and replacing the midsection with an empty steel tube. In 2002, the boat opened as a museum ship at the Cité de la Mer naval museum in Cherbourg-Octeville, France, being now the largest submarine open to the public [2] and the only nearly-complete ballistic missile submarine hull open to the public — although several museums display small portions, such as sails and/or parts of rudders from such submarines. Special dinner events for organizations aboard this boat's interior spaces are offered by Cité de la Mer. [2]
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The Le Redoutable-class submarine was a ballistic missile submarine class of the French Navy. In French, the type is called Sous-marin Nucléaire Lanceur d'Engins (SNLE), literally "Missile-launching nuclear submarine". When commissioned, they constituted the strategic part of the naval component of the French nuclear triad, then called Force de frappe.
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The Triomphant class of ballistic missile submarines of the French Navy is the active lead boat class of four boats that entered service in 1997, 1999, 2004, and 2010. These four superseded the older Redoutable class, and they provide the ocean-based component of France's nuclear deterrent strike force, the Force de dissuasion. Their home port is Île Longue, Roadstead of Brest, Western Brittany.
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Ajax was a Redoutable-class submarine of the French Navy launched in 1930 at Brest, France. It participated in the Second World War, first on the side of the Allies from 1939 to 1940 then on the side of the Axis for the rest of the war. On 23 September 1940, during the Battle of Dakar she was badly damaged by depth charges from HMS Fortune (H70) and was then scuttled.
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Coordinates: 49°38′51.90″N1°37′2.58″W / 49.6477500°N 1.6173833°W