France Successfully Test-Fires Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile Across Atlantic

The French Ministry of Defense announced on Friday it had fired a ballistic missile across the Atlantic Ocean. The M51 submarine-launched missile (SLBM) was monitored by French and US forces, and the test was hailed as a “success” and “essential to French nuclear deterrence” and sovereignty.

On Friday, the French missile submarine Le Téméraire fired an M51 SLBM off the western coast of France toward the Caribbean Sea, the French Defense Ministry announced.

However, according to the Arms Control Association, a US-based non-governmental group, Paris has just 300 nuclear warheads available for use. The defense ministry noted no warhead was aboard Friday’s test missile.

A few days before the test, Le Téméraire was spotted leaving port with huge testing antennae attached to its sail, with observers noting they were of the kind used for missile tests.

​According to French defense observers, the missile traveled 3,700 miles to splash down in the western Sargasso Sea, roughly 400 miles north of Puerto Rico.

​According to Defense News, this was just the ninth launch of an M51, which was first fired in 2006.

Sourse: sputniknews.com