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France secretly upgrades capacity of nuclear arsenal

· Modification increases range of missiles
· Altitude bomb to knock out electronic systems

Kim Willsher in Paris
Friday February 10, 2006
The Guardian


France has secretly modified its nuclear arsenal to increase the strike range and accuracy of its weapons. The move comes weeks after President Jacques Chirac warned that states which threatened the country could face the "ultimate warning" of a nuclear retaliation.
A military source quoted yesterday by the Libération newspaper claimed France had tinkered with its nuclear weapons to improve their strike capability and make this threat more credible.

The source said there had been two major changes: the bombs can now be fired at high altitude to create an "electromagnetic impulsion" to destroy the enemy's computer and communications systems; and the number of nuclear warheads has been reduced to increase the missiles' range and precision.

During his surprise speech, which was made in January, President Chirac said: "The number of nuclear warheads has been reduced in certain of the missiles in our submarines".
Military experts said this was not a step towards disarmament, but a move to improve the performance of the weapons. Until now each submarine carried 16 French-made M45 missiles, each fitted with six nuclear warheads. After being fired, each warhead would separate to hit a different target, in effect giving each submarine 96 nuclear bombs.

In reducing the number of warheads, down to one per missile in some cases, the weapon is lighter and has a longer range. It can also be targeted more accurately.

Libération speculates that while potential targets are "secret", it is clear they include the Middle East or Asia, and that its military contacts suggest the changes are aimed at adding "flexibility" to France's nuclear deterrent.

"These evolutions are aimed at better taking into account the psychology of the enemy," defence minister Michèle Alliot-Marie said after President Chirac's warning in January.

In a speech to MPs, she added: "A potential enemy may think that France, given its principles, might hesitate to use the entire force of its nuclear arsenal against civilian populations.

"Our country has modified its capacity for action and from now on has the possibility to target the control centres of an eventual enemy."

French government sources said the president's speech, given at a nuclear submarine base in Brittany, was not targeted specifically at Iran - despite Tehran's decision to continue its nuclear programme - or at individual terrorist organisations, but at countries that posed a direct threat to France itself.

It is also seen as an attempt to justify the more than €3.5bn (£2.4bn) a year France spends to maintain its estimated 300-350 nuclear weapons more than a decade after the end of the cold war.

"The ultimate warning restores the principle of dissuasion," the military source told Libération. The president is not talking about a choice between an apocalypse or nothing at all."

The paper says according to its information "ultimate warning" could take two new forms.

The most demonstrative would be to fire a relatively weak warhead into a deserted zone far from centres of power and habitation. The more radical option would be to explode a bomb at an extremely high altitude with the aim of creating a brief but enormously strong electromagnetic field which would disable or destroy all non-protected electronic systems in the area.

During the cold war France's "ultimate threat" involved firing nuclear bombs into Soviet military divisions and large cities.

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 27 – A senior Iranian Ayatollah told worshippers in Tehran’s Friday prayers ceremony that French President Jacques Chirac was “an idiot” ruling over “the worst dictatorship in the world”.

Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani’s vitriolic remarks were in reaction to the French leader’s recent statement, in which he said France might react to a major terrorist incident on its soil with its nuclear arsenal.

“You French idiot! You who consider yourself as the President of France! You get everything completely wrong. You see democracy as suppression and suppression as democracy. You yourselves have the worst dictatorship”, Emami-Kashani, who is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said.

“You say you want to drop these [nuclear] bombs on terrorists, but these bombs pollute a wide area of the Earth and the pollution will even reach France. So you want to drop [nuclear] bombs on the people”, the senior cleric said, addressing the French president.

Emami-Kashani said the Islamic Republic would refuse to abdicate its “right” to carry out nuclear activities on its own soil, despite the threat of UN Security Council referral.

“We will not compromise on the issue of nuclear energy”, he told worshippers in Tehran.

Emami-Kashani said that Iranian leaders could see how the issue of Iran’s nuclear rights was linked to “plots and conspiracies” being hatched by Iran’s “enemies” in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and the recent explosions in the south-west Iranian city of Ahwaz.

“The key to the power and authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its becoming a role model lies in access to nuclear technology and we will not stop our nuclear research for access to nuclear energy”, he said.

“There is a common scenario behind the curtain for Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran's nuclear program and the main issue is that they are opposed to any progress by Iran's ruling system”, he added.

He told Washington to take note that “Iran’s Majlis, government, judiciary, State Expediency Council, universities, and all the people” want Iran to become a nuclear power.

He went on to accuse Iran’s enemies of having a hand in the twin-bombings that left nine people dead in the city of Ahwaz on Tuesday.

On the issue of the Palestinian elections and the victory of Hamas, Emami-Kashani said, “The Zionists described the Palestinian elections to be an earthquake. We hope that this earthquake continues until it reaches the White House”.

Source: Iran Focus

The world again goes crazy.

AngloPhone wrote:The world again goes crazy.

What did you expect, the european political correctness was simply asking for this to happen.

Be careful France, G.W. Bush might pay you a visit reaosning it with oyur nuclear bombs

€3.5bn spent on nuclear weapon yearly? Wow! This is the annual budget of certain small countries.

France was always a pioneer in the nuclear sector among other European countries. This news comes with nor surprise to me.

yes, 75% of France's total energy sources are nuclear, that's a good part of the French economy, since it is in some way independent from other countries.

I didn't know that. How is eu's position about this?