French submarine Le Redoutable (S 611)

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Career (France)
Builder:	DCN Cherbourg
Laid down:	November 1964
Launched:	29 March 1967
Commissioned:	1 December 1971
Decommissioned:	1 December 1991
Homeport:	Île Longue
Fate:	Museum ship
General characteristics
Class and type:	SNLE
Displacement:	9,000 tons (submerged)
Length:	130 m
Beam:	10,60 m
Draught:	10 m
Propulsion:	One PWR, 16,000 shp
Speed:	over 20 knots (37 km/h)
Range:	Essentially unlimited
Complement:	15 officers 120 sailors
Sensors and processing systems:	1 DRUA 33 1 DMUX 21 1 DSUV 61B VLF 1 DUUX 5 ARUR 12 radar detector
Armament:	16 M4 MSBS (Mer Sol Balistique Stratégique) nuclear missiles four 533 mm torpedo tubes F-17 and L-5 torpedoes SM-39 Exocet

French submarine Le Redoutable (S 611) was the lead ship of her class of ballistic missile submarine in the French Marine Nationale.

Commissioned on 1 December 1971, she was the first French SNLE (Sous-marin Nucléaire Lanceur d'Engins, "Device-Launching Nuclear Submarine"). She was fitted with 16 M1 ballistic missiles, delivering 450kt at 2000 kilometres. In 1974, she was refitted with the M2 missile, and later with the M20, each delivering a one-megatonne warhead at a range over 3000 kilometres. The Redoutable was the only ship of her class not to be refitted with the M4 missile.

The Redoutable had a 20-year duty history, with 51 patrols. She was decommissioned in 1991. Since 2000, she is used as a museum ship at the Cité de la mer in Cherbourg, being now the largest submarine open to the public.

[edit] See also

• for other ships by the name, see French ship Redoutable

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