Southern European Navies and Naval Projects

摘要

The French Government maintains a capable navy with a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier battle group, as well as an attack and ballistic missile submarine fleet. France also has a well-established naval industrial system with strong export capabilities and support from the national authorities, as demonstrated most recently by the establishment in July 2020 of the Ministere de la Mer (Ministry of the Sea).Under the current military planning law - Loi de Programmation Militaire (LPM 2019-2025) - the French Navy received a significant boost in terms of its platforms and systems development, in addition to its procurement programmes. While the coro-navirus pandemic is causing delays in the implementation of current activities, the effect should be limited for the longer-term programmes since the industry is receiving Government support to overcome the impact of the pandemic. Detailed design studies for the third-generation ballistic nuclear submarine (SNLE3G) are in progress, under a co-contracting agreement between Naval Group and TechnicAtome, while the same industrial team led by Naval Group is committed to delivering the first SUFFREN class SSN by late 2020 with en-try-into-service foreseen for 2021. The new class of SSN represents a significant boost in terms of at-sea presence and the French Navy's operational capabilities, thanks to its new generation hybrid nuclear/electric propulsion, together with its weapons systems.