While waiting to equip itself with hypersonic missiles, France is strengthening its nuclear deterrence with the M51.3 missile, tested with “success”

2023-11-20 15:30:36

FRANCE – The Ministry of the Armed Forces announced on Saturday November 18, 2023 the “success” of the test of a sea-to-ground strategic ballistic missile. The launch of the M51.3 supersonic projectile, carried out in “strict compliance with international commitments”, “sustains the credibility of French ocean deterrence for the coming decades”, estimated Minister Sébastien Lecornu. This test, without a nuclear charge, takes place in a geopolitical context marked by the war in Ukraine, the strengthening of the nuclear arsenal by the great powers and above all, the revocation, by Moscow, of its ratification of the CTBT (Comprehensive Ban Treaty). nuclear tests).

The strange ball of fire seen on Saturday in the sky over New Aquitaine was none other than M51.3. In a press release released the same day, the Ministry of the Armed Forces announced the “successful” test of the launch of the sea-to-surface strategic ballistic missile. “This evening, a test firing of an M51 missile was successfully carried out from the center of the General Directorate of Armament-Missile Testing in Biscarrosse (South-West)”, lit-on.

A range of 10,000 kilometers

This shot, continues the same source, “made it possible to validate an important evolution of the missile which will contribute to perpetuating the credibility of our oceanic deterrent over the coming decades”.

The projectile was followed throughout its flight phase and the fallout zone is located in the North Atlantic, “several hundred kilometers from any coast”. Defense specifies that this test, which “once again demonstrates the excellence of the high technology that French industries are implementing in this area”, was carried out “without nuclear charge and in strict compliance with France’s international commitments” .

Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who thanked the staff of his department and the Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA), reacted shortly after. “That evolution, he writes onperpetuates the credibility of our nuclear deterrence and demonstrates the excellence of our launcher sector”.

The M51 missile program, entrusted to ArianeGroup, was launched in 1996 to replace, by 2010, the M-45. The development of the projectile follows an incremental logic, intended to enable Paris to adapt to developments in defense technologies and “anticipate threats”according to the statement by André-Hubert Roussel, CEO of ArianeGroup.

“Each technological development of the weapons system is equipped with performances which anticipate the evolution of defenses over the next twenty or thirty years”he explains.

The M51 supersonic missile is currently available in two versions, which equip ballistic missile submarines. The first, M51.1, was put into service in September 2010 while the second, M51.2, has been operational since 2016. The missile can reach a range of 10,000 kilometers and carry up to 10 projectiles, each with its own trajectory. .

Catching up with Moscow and Beijing in the hypersonic race

According to what the Ministry of the Armed Forces explains, the objective is to “protect the vital interests of France in all circumstances”. If the M51 missile should “perpetuate the credibility” of the French nuclear deterrent, France is lagging behind in the eyes of many observers, particularly in the race to develop hypersonic missiles. This technology grants powers like Russia their military superiority and is based on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), one of the pioneers of which is none other as Jean-Pierre Petit, former research director at CNRS and astrophysicist.

The race is currently dominated by Russia with its Kinzhal, Zircon and Avangard, China with its Dongfeng-17 (DF-17), DF-27 and YJ-21, as well as the United States and its HAWC missiles. , AGM-183 ARRW and LRHW. Unlike these three powers, whose hypersonic arsenal is already operational, the United Kingdom, Japan, India and France are still developing their programs.

In June, Paris tested a V-Max hypersonic glider, capable of reaching speeds greater than Mach 5. The program was launched in 2019 by ArianeGroup and a second version, VMaX 2, should see the light of day and be tested next year or in 2025.

The M51.3 test comes about 20 days after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Moscow’s revocation of its ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), an international agreement aimed at banning nuclear tests and ultimately achieve a world without nuclear weapons. The Kremlin officially justified its decision by the non-ratification by Washington and Beijing of this treaty but its revocation comes against a backdrop of conflict in Ukraine and the crisis with NATO.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the nuclear arsenals of several countries, like China, increased in 2022 while other nuclear powers continued to modernize their tools. While the total number of nuclear warheads among the nine nuclear powers has declined to 12,512 at the start of 2023, from 12,710 at the start of 2022, the number of warheads that are in military stockpiles for potential use increased.