French nuclear submarine FS Suffren arrived at Faslane near Glasgow in Scotland this morning.

The visit, described as routine, isn’t the first time a French nuclear submarine has visited Scotland.

FS Suffren is the lead submarine of the six-strong Barracuda-class submarine fleet. The class displaces around 5,000 tonnes. The design is influenced by the preceding Triomphant-class boats that debuted in 1997 and incorporates the latest in acoustics dampening.

As designed, Suffren feature san overall length of 326 feet, a beam of 29 feet and a draught of 24 feet. The crew numbers sixty and includes twelve officer-level personnel. The boat’s profile is conventional with a mid-mounted sail, rounded bow and tapering stern. At the stern is an X-shaped plane arrangement and shrouded propeller unit.

Recently, nuclear submarines from France and the U.S. were recently berthed in HMNB Clyde at Faslane near Glasgow in Scotland.

French and American nuclear submarines visiting Scotland

The American submarine was of the Virginia class and the French submarine was of the Rubis class.

The Rubis Class

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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28 COMMENTS

  1. Getting crowded in Faslane now. Great to see the base now operating as NATO premier submarine facility in the North Atlantic. Anything that can help to supplement our own reduced SSN numbers is very welcome.

  3. Don’t remember any articles detailing USN/RN SSB/SSBN port calls to Toulon or Ile Longue. Presume visits occur occasionally; French may have different OpSec regs?

    • Croissants and marmalade served Glasgow style.
      Nice to see the French boats out and about.
      A crew of only 60 caught my attention. So the boat must be able to be run by less than 30 I presume (unless they have mastered not sleeping). Quite a bit less than the U.K. and USA boats for crew.

      • ..or an Ulster Fry-Taty bread,Wheaten and Soda with bacon,sausage and 2 fried eggs also known as the Pan pronounced Paaan! Throw in some butter milk and Irish country butter and Bobs your Uncle! Can also be served toward Midnight😂
        For the health concious

  8. Interesting nuclear technology propulsion, without being enriched it means it needs to refuel each 10 years but at same time it is much easier to do and less dangerous.

    • Yes and no, nuclear refueling itself is probably the most dangerous procedure. However it’s undoubtedly very difficult to do which is why only the US and UK have the technology to do it at the moment. For the AUKUS choice it was critical as setting up a refueling capability was considered a show stopper.

      • Not only the UK and the US, all nuclear power can do it…
        The reason the French use LEU is because we no longer produce HEU, it is also easier to use the same fuel as the civilian industry, reactors for LEU are also easier to design.

        While the UK uses HEU from the US… not theirs (since the UK has also stopped producing HEU)…

  9. Interesting
    Suffren was the new Barracuda class SSN was it not?
    The type that the Chinese stole the blue prints for leading to a cancellation of the Australian order of its conventionally powered derivative. Australia did the right thing by the way cancelling the order. Why would you want an expensive sub that your enemy knows everything about and is likely in the near future to build a derivative of the Barracuda design themselves. I am willing to put a large sum of money on the fact that the next generation PLAN SSN will look very much alike to the Barracuda design.
    I guess NATO needs the type to be thoroughly sonar scanned and its engine and hull noise recorded hence deployed to Scotland for a few runs through a susnat net.

    • If the PLAN can make anything like Barracuda we are in trouble. Stealing plans for an SSN won’t do much good. It’s the precision engineering and manufacturing they lack.

      • I agree but it is the leg up via reverse engineering that the Chinese seem to be particularly apt at achieving. Why invent or design anything new when you can simply steal it?

    • The Suffren plan was never stolen…
      The only important leak concerning French submarines concerns the confidential (not SD/Secret) documentation of the Scorpene class in India.

      The documentation is not really difficult to obtain and does not give much information, the detailed plans are much more difficult to obtain…

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