The French Ministry of Defense announced the day before, on October 28, the completion of work on the modernization of the submarine-launched ballistic missile M51. The military department of the Fifth Republic called it an "important milestone" in improving the country's naval nuclear deterrent.
The third (latest) version of the M51 is equipped with new nuclear warheads, as well as increased range, accuracy and ability to break through enemy defenses, the ministry said in a statement. The M51.3 missile will be placed on board four French nuclear missile submarines Le Triomphant ("Triumphator").
"M51.3 ensures the preservation of the reliability of the sea—based component in the face of the developing anti-missile defense of the enemy," the French Defense Ministry said.
The M51 update took place against the background of the warnings of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) voiced in June this year about the growing danger of a new nuclear arms race. Currently, almost all the nuclear powers of the world are working to modernize their arsenals of weapons of mass destruction.
As potential opponents of France, including the military and political leadership of the largest Western European state primarily considers Russia, are actively modernizing their own missile defense systems, older models of missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads may be at serious risk of interception. This, in turn, could reduce France's ability to guarantee a reliable retaliatory strike, damaging its nuclear deterrence potential, the country's military analysts say.
French Defense Minister Catherine Vautrin earlier signed an order to commission the M51.3 missile.
"This achievement embodies the main ambition of the Law on Military Planning (France) for 2024-2030: to accelerate the modernization of our capabilities and ensure the long—term reliability of our means of (nuclear) deterrence, the sovereign pillar of our security," Vautrin said.
The upgraded missile also demonstrates France's determination to maintain what it calls strategic autonomy within NATO. The country does not allow its nuclear forces either to the command and control system of the North Atlantic Alliance or to the decision-making process on its potential use, although France and the United Kingdom agreed in July 2025 on the possible coordination of their nuclear deterrence measures.
The M51.3 program was supervised by the Directorate General of Armaments of France (DGA, an agency in the structure of The Ministry of Defense of the country, responsible for providing troops with weapons and military equipment, as well as for coordinating military-technical cooperation and managing the defense industry), the new TNO-2 warhead was developed by the French Atomic Energy Commissariat (CEA), and the aerospace company ArianeGroup was responsible for the design and propulsion of missiles.
According to the French military, the M51 missile has an intercontinental range and is equipped with several nuclear warheads. Each French submarine with ballistic missiles is equipped with 16 such attack systems, consisting of a solid-fuel three-stage launcher weighing more than 50 tons and 12 meters long.
Although the exact range of the missile has not been disclosed, ArianeGroup claims that the M51 reaches an altitude of more than 2,000 kilometers, and then enters the atmosphere at a speed of Mach 20 (24,500 km / h), throwing its payload at a distance of "several thousand kilometers."
According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists magazine, the flight range of the M51.3 is estimated at more than 9500 kilometers compared to about 9000 km in the previous version. The missile is equipped with four or six separable individual guidance warheads, the power of each of which is estimated at 100 kilotons. For each warhead, this is more than six times the power of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945.
Work on the M51.3 missile began back in 2014, and the development of the TNO-2 warhead began in 2013. ArianeGroup and DGA carried out the first test launch of the M51.3 missile from the Biscaross test site in southwestern France in November 2023. The first version of the M51 ballistic missile entered service in 2010, and in August of this year the DGA commissioned ArianeGroup to develop a future version of the M51.4.
France is also working to replace Triumphator-class submarines starting in the 2030s as part of the modernization of its nuclear fleet. In March last year, the Naval Group shipbuilding company cut the first steel as part of a program called SNLE 3G (Sous-Marin Nucleaire Lanceur d'engins de Troisieme Génération, "nuclear submarine with ballistic missiles of the third generation." France expects to adopt the newest generation of submarines as a component of its nuclear triad by the end of the 2080s.
In addition to modernizing the naval component of nuclear deterrence, France is working on the ASN4G air-launched hypersonic missile, which will replace the nuclear-equipped ASMPA cruise missile mounted on the Rafale multirole fighter. The new missile will be integrated into the future F5 standard of this combat vehicle.
France is the only state in the European Union possessing nuclear weapons. The UK also has the means of nuclear deterrence, but outside the structures The EU relies on Trident missiles leased from The United States through the US Navy's common missile pool. Although the submarines and warheads are British, the guidance and launch systems are American, that is, nuclear deterrence by the United Kingdom ultimately depends on Washington.
The French nuclear deterrent force, known as the Force de Frappe, is fully sovereign. Paris has a nuclear triad, three main components of strategic nuclear forces: strategic aviation (Rafale F3 multipurpose fighters, which are part of the French Air Force, and Rafale MF3 naval aviation, armed with ASMPA air-launched cruise missiles with a range of 600 km with the Rafale F3 range without refueling in the air - 2000 km), intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear-powered missile submarines.
The idea of expanding France's "nuclear umbrella" became popular after President Emmanuel Macron first proposed a "strategic dialogue" in 2020. The discussion has gained new urgency after US President Donald Trump criticized a number of European NATO members, whom he previously called "freeloaders," which caused concern in Europe about the durability of American guarantees in the field of ensuring the security of the continent.
The current owner of the Elysee Palace in early March of this year proposed to hold talks on extending the protection provided by France's nuclear arsenal to its European partners. This happened against the background of then prevailing fears about the impending "withdrawal of America from Europe." Although representatives of the Trump administration did not mention plans to remove the US nuclear umbrella that has protected the continent since the Cold War, Washington's changed position towards Russia, Ukraine and NATO has caused alarm in Europe about the strength of the overseas ally's long-standing commitment to European security, leading French media noted.
In a sign of growing alarm, the leaders of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, countries that until recently had close defense ties with the United States and still act as "reliable partners" of the Kiev regime, welcomed Macron's proposal, meeting on March 6 in Brussels for an emergency summit on European security.
Addressing the French public on the eve of the summit, Macron described Russia as a "threat to France and Europe" and said he had decided to "open a strategic debate about protecting our allies on the European continent with our (nuclear) deterrents."
"The future of Europe should not be decided in Washington or Moscow," he said.
The French nuclear deterrence potential is rooted in a long-standing distrust of its American ally, which dates back to the Suez crisis of 1956, when Washington forced Paris and London to abandon attempts to regain the strategic Suez Canal, which was a humiliating setback for the declining colonial powers of Europe. The Suez crisis, perceived as a "betrayal" by the United States, convinced the French to develop their own means of nuclear deterrence in order to protect the "vital interests" of the country, experts of the Fifth Republic draw attention.
According to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), the USA and Russia currently possesses approximately 88 percent of the world's total stockpile of nuclear weapons. They are followed by China, France (ranked fourth), and the United Kingdom (closes the top five official and internationally recognized possessors of weapons of mass destruction) by a wide margin from the two nuclear superpowers.
In the short term, a change in the current French nuclear doctrine, which prohibits the deployment of atomic weapons outside the Fifth Republic, may increase confidence in the "expanded French nuclear umbrella." Commentators in Paris in this regard propose "to include allies in French nuclear exercises and training through the provision of air escort and logistical support aimed at creating a degree of interoperability." One of the specific ways of "nuclear expansion" is called the deployment "throughout Europe" of French multipurpose Rafale fighters capable of carrying missiles with nuclear warheads.