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Le Triomphant (S 616)
Encyclopedia
The Triomphant is a strategic nuclear submarine of the French Navy
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
; she is the lead boat of her class. She collided with a British nuclear submarine in 2009.
Construction and testing
The first sheet of Triomphant was cut at DCNDCN
DCNS is a naval defence company based in France and is one of Europe's leading shipbuilders....
Cherbourg in October 1986, and her engine was shipped to her from DCN
DCN
DCNS is a naval defence company based in France and is one of Europe's leading shipbuilders....
Indret five years later. The reactor was built into the vessel in August 1991, with the fore and aft sections being welded on in January and April 1992 respectively. She was armed and given a commander in May 1992 and moved from the assembly site to the completion basin in July 1993. Her launch in March 1994 was followed by her first dive that June and her trip from DCN Cherbourg to lle Longue that July down the "free route" between Cherbourg and Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
, with a crew of 110 and engineers from DCN Cherbourg. On 4 January 1995, during testing, she reached her maximum depth for the first time and made her first firing of a ballistic missile the following month. Photographs of her were exhibited to the Senate of France from 15 to 23 May 1995. In June she set off back to Cherbourg for Post-Testing Upgrades (Remises A Niveau Après Essais or RANAE), then set off for a second set of trials, making 1,300 hours of test dives in total and a five-week trip. She then spent five weeks in maintenance at Cherbourg and during her main weapons tests took on 11 torpedo models, five trial torpedoes and one Exocet SM39 exercise. As a deterrent system, a salvo of 15 models was successfully launched and, in the last round of development, she functioned successfully as a missile platform even if her engine did not achieve its best. She left Cherbourg on 7 March 1996 for her second round of trials, with the final tests of her nuclear boiler coming on 12 July and of her weapons systems on 26 August.
Active service
Triomphant entered active service in March 1997. On 18 October 2001, the fleet support service notified the DCNDCN
DCNS is a naval defence company based in France and is one of Europe's leading shipbuilders....
that Triomphant was about to take her first period of Unavailability for Maintenance and Repairs (IPER or Indisponibilité pour Entretien et Réparations). The 150 million Euro contract was granted to DCN, with the IPER starting at Ile Longue on 2 April 2002, scheduled for 29 months in all. In this, her first major refit, her missiles and the fuel elements of her nuclear boiler were disembarked. In August 2004 L'Humanité
L'Humanité
L'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...
ran a piece with the headline "Pas si Triomphant que ça" reporting that Triomphant had suffered a nuclear leak from one of her nuclear warheads by the end of 1997 and from her reactor in 2004, though the FOST
Force Océanique Stratégique
The Force océanique stratégique is the ballistic missile submarine force of the French Navy. It is one of the two components of the submarine forces of the French Navy and the sea-based component of the French nuclear deterrent.- History :The FOST was created in the early 1960s, around the need...
downplayed the incidents and stated no radiation had been released since the reactor had been nonoperational at the time. She carried out a test flight of a M45 strategic missile on 1 February 2005 in the Atlantic. In the night between 3–4 February 2009, Triomphant collided with the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
submarine HMS Vanguard
HMS Vanguard (S28)
The eleventh HMS Vanguard of the Royal Navy is the lead boat of her class of Trident ballistic missile-armed submarines. The submarine is based at HMNB Clyde, Faslane....
. Triomphant was reported to have proceeded to Brest under her own power, submerged, but with extensive damage to her sonar dome.
The French originally claimed that Triomphant had "collided with an immersed object (probably a container)". After Vanguard returned to harbour, it was confirmed that the collision was in fact with her.
See also
- HMS Vanguard and Triomphant submarine collisionHMS Vanguard and Triomphant submarine collisionThe submarines HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant collided in the Atlantic Ocean in the night between 3–4 February 2009. Both are nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. The Royal Navy's HMS Vanguard and the French Navy's Le Triomphant both sustained damage, but no injuries or radiation...