French submarine Le Triomphant (S616)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Le Triomphant.

Le Triomphant is a strategic nuclear submarine of the French Navy; the submarine is the lead boat of her class commissioned in 1997 with the home port of Île Longue. The vessel carries sixteen strategic missiles, whose launch can only be authorized by the President of France.

Le Téméraire; sister ship of Le Triomphant
History
France
Name	Le Triomphant
Cost	€4.282 billion (2010)
Laid down	9 June 1989
Launched	26 March 1994
Commissioned	21 March 1997
Homeport	Île Longue
Identification	S616
General characteristics
Class and type	Triomphant-class submarine
Displacement	12 640 tonnes (surfaced) 14 335 t (submerged)
Length	138 m (453 ft)
Beam	12.50 m (41.0 ft)
Draught	10.60 m (34.8 ft)
Propulsion	Pressurised water K15 nuclear reactor (150 MW (200,000 hp)), LEU 7%; turboreductor system; Pump-jet 2 SEMT Pielstick diesels-alternators 8PA4V200 SM (700 kW (940 hp)) auxiliaries. 30,500 kW (40,900 hp)
Speed	over 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph)
Range	Unlimited distance; 20–25 years
Test depth	Over 400 m (1,300 ft)
Complement	110, including 15 officers
Sensors and processing systems	Sonar DMUX 80 Sonar DUUX 5 Sonar DSUV 61B Very Low Frequency Racal Decca radar (navigation) SCC : SET (Système d'exploitation Tactique) : tactical operational system
Electronic warfare & decoys	ARUR 13
Armament	Nuclear: 16 M45 or M51 missiles with six to ten TN 75 150 kt or TNO 100-300 kt thermonuclear warheads Anti-submarine : 4 × 533 mm tubes for F17 torpedoes Anti-surface : Exocet SM39

History

Construction and testing

The first metal of Le Triomphant was cut at DCN Cherbourg in October 1986, and the boat's engine was shipped to the boat from DCN Indret five years later. The reactor was built into the vessel in August 1991, with the fore and aft sections being welded on in January and April 1992 respectively. The boat was armed and given a commander in May 1992 and moved from the assembly site to the completion basin in July 1993. The boat's launching in March 1994 was followed by the first dive that June and the trip from DCN Cherbourg to lle Longue that July down the "free route" between Cherbourg and Brest, with a crew of 110 and engineers from DCN Cherbourg. On 4 January 1995, during testing, the boat reached maximum depth for the first time and made the first firing of a ballistic missile the following month. Photographs of the boat were exhibited to the Senate of France from 15 to 23 May 1995. In June, the boat set off back to Cherbourg for Post-Testing Upgrades (Remises A Niveau Après Essais or RANAE), then set off for a second set of trials, making 1,300 hours of test dives in total and a five-week trip. The boat then spent five weeks in maintenance at Cherbourg and during the main weapons tests took on 11 torpedo models, five trial torpedoes and one Exocet SM39 exercise. As a deterrent system, a salvo of 15 models was successfully launched and, in the last round of development, the boat functioned successfully as a missile platform.

Characteristics

Conventional and nuclear armament

Le Triomphant entered active service in March 1997. On 18 October 2001, the fleet support service notified the DCN that Triomphant was about to take the first period of Unavailability for Maintenance and Repairs (IPER or Indisponibilité pour Entretien et Réparations). The 150 million Euro contract was granted to DCN, with the IPER starting at Ile Longue on 2 April 2002, scheduled for 29 months in all. In this, the boat's first major refit, the missiles and the fuel elements of the nuclear boiler were disembarked. In August 2004 L'Humanité ran a piece with the headline "Pas si Triomphant que ça" reporting that Le Triomphant had suffered a nuclear leak from one of her nuclear warheads by the end of 1997 and from her reactor in 2004, though the FOST downplayed the incidents and stated no radiation had been released since the reactor had been non-operational at the time. Le Triomphant carried out a test flight of a M45 strategic missile on 1 February 2005 in the Atlantic.

Since 1972, patrols by Submarines forces are conducted 24/7 365/year, embarking each sixteen strategic missiles, which launching can only be authorized by the President of France, and which could destroy 96 targets with an equivalent effect of a hundred times the explosions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Active service

Main article: HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant submarine collision

In the night between 3–4 February 2009, Le Triomphant collided with the Royal Navy submarine HMS Vanguard in the Atlantic. Both vessels returned to home bases under their own power, Vanguard to Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde in the Firth of Clyde on 14 February 2009, and Le Triomphant to Île Longue in Brittany, escorted by a frigate as per procedure. The French Navy originally reported that Le Triomphant had "collided with an immersed object (probably a container)". After Vanguard returned to harbour, it was confirmed that the light brief contact collision was in fact with the designated boat.

See also

• List of submarines of France

External links

• www.netmarine.net