Third Suffren-Class Submarine Delivered To French Navy

Naval Group has delivered Tourville, the third of six Suffren-class nuclear attack submarines ordered by the French Navy.

The new vessel was handed over to the French government's defence procurement agency the Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA) at a ceremony earlier this month having successfully completed sea trials through the summer and early autumn.

As per a recent Naval Group press statement, having been received by the French Navy, the Tourville will now begin the second phase of "verification of military characteristics" (VCM) which will take in a long-term deployment at sea to confirm the submarine's endurance capabilities. Once this stage has been completed, the submarine will officially enter active service.

The full cost of the Suffren-class programme has been estimated at roughly €10.5 billion. Each 100-metre vessel can sail at speeds in excess of 25 knots and mission endurance is limited only by the amount of food carried to feed its crew of 60: usually deployments last about 70 days.

The subs can fire Missile de Croisière Naval (MdCN) naval cruise missiles at land targets up to 1,000km away. They are also armed with Exocet SM39 anti-ship missiles and F21 Artemis torpedoes.

Naval Group is now more than halfway through its construction of the Suffren-class submarines for the French Navy. Initially laid down at the end of 2007, the Suffren was launched in August 2019 and commissioned the following year; the Duguay-Trouin was commissioned in July 2023.

Three further subs — the De Grasse, the Rubis and the Casabianca — are in various stages of construction; the final vessel is expected to be commissioned in 2029-30.

• You can read more details on the DGA website