Plateau d'Albion
In September 1996, France shut down its 18 land-based nuclear missiles. It was expected to take two years to dismantle the missiles and their concrete silos. The country's nuclear deterrent will now rely on planes and submarines. The missiles, each one many times more powerful than the atomic bomb which destroyed Hiroshima in 1945, were deactivated in September 1997, leaving France's independent deterrent force with nuclear submarines and stand-off bomber aircraft to deliver nuclear missiles. Dismantling the base created dismay in the region because it provided jobs and a boost to the local economy.
Following President Chirac's decision in 1996 to close down the land-based nuclear missile launching sites, the French defense ministry announced on 17 September 1997, that Foreign Legionnaires will be stationed on the windswept Plateau d'Albion in southeastern France. The 1,000 legionnaires who will man the base from 1999-2000 will be part of a new combat engineers unit able to be moved quickly overseas in case of crisis. Some of the personnel making up the unit will come from an existing Legion engineers regiment which maintains France's now-closed nuclear testing site at Mururoa atoll in the south Pacific.
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