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Post Cold War Era and the Marine Nationale

The maritime dimension plays a pivotal role within France's defence strategy. Considering its permanent presence all over the world, the French Navy contributes to the need for defence and security in the maritime and air spaces in a globalized environment facing transnational threats.

These orientations derive from political and strategic analyses set down in the 1994 Defence White paper, updated with the new 2003/2008 Military bill of law and the lessons learned from recent operations, notably in Kosovo and in Afghanistan (Operation Heracles in 2001-2006) and Lebanon (Operation Baliste during the summer of 2006). The needs to build a European defence component and to fight international terrorism and trafficking also constitute a strong impetus for this evolution. Peace in some parts of Europe remains fragile and, a small distance away from the continent, conflicts sporadically punctuate the course of the world. Our national interests and those of our allies are permanently and directly threatened by terrorism, as the series of attacks against Westerners, including 09/11/2001, tragically illustrate.

This alteration of the strategic environment demands to defend the nation's vital interests and to act as early as possible - which sometimes means as far away as possible - in mostly joint and primarily European frameworks. In this regard, the contributions of the French Navy revolve around operational functions deriving from the four strategic functions - deterrence, protection, prevention and projection - the last two being gathered under the term "operational action" :

• Deterrence is the cornerstone of French defence strategy, guaranteeing the protection of our vital interests;
• Operational action gathers prevention missions to stop the development of conflict or crises situations, as well as power or force projection missions;
• Maritime safeguard guarantees the defence of the territory from the sea and contributes to the protection of French interests at sea and from the sea.

President of the Republic's speech at l'Île Longue, on January 19th 2006 : «In the face of the concerns of the present and the uncertainties of the future, nuclear deterrence remains the fundamental guarantee of our security. It also gives us the ability to keep our freedom to act (...). Deterrence has always continued to adapt (...) to our environment and to the threat analysis (...). We are in a position to inflict damage of any kind on a major power that would want to attack interests we would regard as vital. Against a regional power (...) the flexibility and reactivity of our strategic forces would enable us to exercise our response directly against its centres of power».

The deterrence strategy remains at the heart of the national defence policy. To face the new threats, the nuclear doctrine was adapted in the maintained context of a non-use policy. Capabilities have evolved accordingly and lie on:

• Ballistic missiles arming the submarines of the Strategic Oceanic Rafale Marine Force (FOST)
• Air-breathing missiles for the air-launched component of the Air Force and Naval Air Arm aircraft. With the FOST, the French Navy implements the main component of nuclear deterrence. Four SSBNs assume this mission. To guarantee the security of the FOST, an important share of the naval assets is dedicated to direct or indirect support to SSBNs: nuclear attack submarines (SNA), anti-submarine warfare frigates and destroyers (FASM), maritime patrol aircraft (PATMAR), mine warfare assets and general maritime security and safeguard organisation. In addition to the submarine component, airborne nuclear weapons contribute towards the deterrence mission with all the flexibility of use provided by the aircraft-carrier.
• The Super-Etendard (SUE) carrying the medium-range air-to-ground missile (ASMP) will eventually be replaced by the Rafale with the ASMPA (improved medium-range air-to-ground missile). FANU (nuclear naval-air force) thus provide flexible deterrent capabilities and represent a credible threat in the vicinity of a crisis area.