French nuclear submarine Suffren visited Faslane naval base near Glasgow in Scotland this week.
The visit isn’t the first time a French nuclear submarine has visited Scotland, not by a long shot, as the increasing number of visits by the French and U.S. Navy in recent years reflects the enhanced security posture in the North Atlantic.
The Suffren class boats are significantly larger than the current Amethyste class boats they replace and have nearly twice the displacement. These new boats use technology from the French Triomphant class ballistic missile submarines, including pump-jet propulsion. These new boats are very stealthy and emit little noise. Furthermore the Suffren class is fitted with advanced sensors to detect other submarines.
They have 533 mm torpedo tubes and 20 storage racks for various weapons, including F21 Artemis heavy torpedoes, Exocet SM.39 Block 2 anti-ship missiles with a range of 50 km, SCALP naval cruise missiles with a range of over 1 000 km, and FG29 mines.
Recently, nuclear submarines from France and the U.S. were recently berthed in HMNB Clyde at Faslane near Glasgow in Scotland.
With all the Russian activity over subsea cables, are there some knowledge sharing activities that can only take place face to face or do I need some tin foil?
Don’t worry. CNN and Reuters are reporting this morning that a highly classified intel dossier on Russia interference in Mr Trump’s election has gone missing – while it was in his possession at Mar-E-Lago. Plus another highly classified file on Pentagon plans for a war with Iran that included an “appreciation” of where Iran is with actually building a nuclear weapon.
Now, I wonder exactly what Mr Trump was doing with high-grade intel like that, given his close friendship with the war criminal Putin
And this lizard could be the President of America, again?
Thxs for the heads up David.
He legally declassified it as President, to document the treason being engaged in by the DoJ/FBI. The FBI raided Mara Lago to try to retrieve the documents that incriminate them!
Absolute rubbish. Mr Trump had no such authority and as a result of his stealing classified documents is now subject to federal charges
Au contraire, the President has absolute security authority, and he used it to try to release the truth about the real rubbish – his persecution by a corrupt bureaucracy.
And that is the central issue with the USA – one man has too much power. Also, how is Iran’s nuclear programme related to a nonexistent conspiracy to depose Trump, which I would have supported even if it did exist.
The Truth isn’t exactly getting out of it’s in mar a Lago, is it? He didn’t release it, except perhaps to the Russians
Is your tin foil hat properly adjusted. It seems to be picking up some odd signals.
How incisive…
I wonder if we will have any spare capacity at Faslane and Plymouth following the completion of upgrades to offer the USN SSN fleet.
Could be a massive boost for AUKUS if US SSN maintenance backlog can be cleared and my understanding is that their infrastructure building program has thus far been a big let down.
Not that we have been doing much better but atleast it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel for UK dry docks that can handle SSN’s.
Do you really think Yank pollies would allow such work to go overseas?
Yes, the USN is starting to use Australian facilities for ssn maintenance
Agreed, UK yard(s) will be utilized, at least partially because needs must. Recent NL article charted a pathway toward a future characterized by sufficient, if not surplus, RN SSBN/SSN maintenance capability. Would anticipate USN, under the auspices of AUKUS, will avail itself of this excess capacity, at least until the maintenance backlog at US yards becomes more manageable. This action may prove to be vital to ensure the success of the AUKUS Pillar I objective. 🤔
Last report I read from your side of the Pond said it would take 25 years to catch up on the Navy backlog.
Perhaps, but if the USN does utilize the good services of partners, it should be able to reduce the backlog, in conjunction w/ additional investment in US shipyard infrastructure.
Exactly. 👍
“current Amethyste class”
It’s the Rubis class, Améthyste is the name of one of the sub and a refit program for the Rubis class.
https://www.defense.gouv.fr/marine/marins/marins-nucleaires-dattaque-sna-type-rubis
Good to see that these courtesy visites happens more often. These Giuk issues are more and more visible lately in French military media. Always a pleasure to see our Marine National cooperate with the best navy in Europe. Let’s hunt together the Russian subs!
Did they surrender again?