Other Post What happens if a French president was to push the "nuclear button"

[Kaiserschlacht]

As in all countries with nuclear weapons, the French procedures for launching a strike are very precise and redundant.

1. The use of nuclear weapons is possible if the vital interests of France are attained and "under extreme circumstances of self-defense" *. This may be an aggression by another State against the national territory, but not only: in the case of terrorist attacks or cyber attacks, in extreme forms and if a third State is identified as responsible, France would not prohibit itself a nuclear response.

2. The President of the Republic shall meet in the Jupiter room,the Elysée nuclear HQ, his defense council, including the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense and military officials. The Head of State alone decides the nature of the fire: single or multiple, explosion at high altitude or not, and defines the target (s).

3. The military chain transmits the targeting, via secret encryption, to the weapons carried by the Rafale and Mirage 2000 aircraft, and by the nuclear launching submarines. Apart from the commander of the ship, no one knows its exact position, not even the head of state. The commander, for his part, does not know the targets.

4. The firing order is transmitted through specialized and redundant networks. The army has in particular very low frequency radio stations (TBF) and the Syderec* emergency system,deploying wire antennas using captive balloons to communicate with the strategic oceanic SSBNs in the event of destruction of stationary communications installations.




http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/si-em...puyer-sur-le-bouton-16-09-2017-2157505_23.php

 

[Euroamerican]

Off the cuff, sounds about right.

 

[Mordoror]

Just a side note but i am not sure there are Mirage 2000N still operating
Airborne nuclear force is restricted now to Rafales to my knowledge

 

[Jake84]

Informative post. As in every country, we use it (or rather don’t) as a deterrent to a military invasion.

The bit about terror attack is interesting, had France been under a similar attack as 9/11 NYC, would we have used it? More importantly against whom? Not an easy question to answer.

 

[Junglejim]

 

[Mordoror]

Informative post. As in every country, we use it (or rather don’t) as a deterrent to a military invasion.

The bit about terror attack is interesting, had France been under a similar attack as 9/11 NYC, would we have used it? More importantly against whom? Not an easy question to answer.

None-state actor so no use policy
And in any case, it is not in French doctrine to use a WMD against a conventional (yet unconventional) attack
Russian doctrine from that pov is more foggy

No matter how much the 9/11 was terrible, it was never a threat to the live of the State/Nation, only option that may justify the use of a nuclear arsenal in our doctrine

That's also we why had this -pre-strategic doctrine USA and SU never fully understood. i.e a nuclear warning shot with Pluton or Hades land launchers before going full mushroom....

 

[Kaiserschlacht]

Just a side note but i am not sure there are Mirage 2000N still operating
Airborne nuclear force is restricted now to Rafales to my knowledge

The article was written in 2017,that's why. Indeed the Mirage 2000N has been withdrawn from service in june 2018,leaving only the Rafale for that role.

That's also we why had this -pre-strategic doctrine USA and SU never fully understood. i.e a nuclear warning shot with Pluton or Hades land launchers before going full mushroom....

We still have the ASMP/A as some sort of "last warning" before the SSBNs enter the dance...

 

[Mordoror]

We still have the ASMP/A as some sort of "last warning" before the SSBNs enter the dance...

I don't know if the pre-strategic doctrine still applies
After all it was in a specific context (risk of WP armies reaching the Rhine and threatening our borders)
This risk doesn't exist anymore
But yes, the ASMP-A can be used as a nuclear warning shot if needed

 

[TIGREDELAIRE]

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Saint nez de De Gaulle!