France is party to all major nonproliferation treaties and is a member of all major international export control regimes. Although it has scaled down its nuclear forces since the end of the Cold War, France still retains a significant nuclear capability. Though France developed biological and chemical weapons during the two world wars, it has ceased activities in both areas. It possesses a limited but varied missile program.
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France has been a nuclear weapon state party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) since 1992. France maintains approximately 350 nuclear warheads on 60 Mirage 2000N bombers, four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), and on carrier-based aircraft. From the time it detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1960 until its final test on 27 January 1996, France conducted 210 tests at sites on Pacific atolls and in the Sahara. In 1996, President Jacques Chirac introduced reforms for the country's nuclear forces, including scaling down its SSBNs from five to four, withdrawing aging Mirage IVP bombers from service, reducing its number of launchers by 50%, and dismantling its Plateau d'Albion land-based ballistic missile system. It dismantled its nuclear test facilities in the Pacific and ratified the Treaty of Rarotonga and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. France ceased production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium in 1992 and 1996, respectively, and, in 1998, began to dismantle the Marcoule reprocessing plant and the Pierrelatte enrichment facility. The French Navy operates about 80% of the total nuclear arsenal.
France possessed a biological weapons program from 1921 to 1926 and again from 1935 to 1940. During these periods, France weaponized the potato beetle and conducted research on pathogens that cause anthrax, salmonella, cholera, and rinderpest. Its scientists also investigated botulinum toxin and ricin. It acceded to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) on 27 September 1984.
France developed and used chemical weapons in WWI and maintained stockpiles of mustard gas and phosgene at the beginning of WWII. In a 1988 speech to the United Nations, French President Mitterrand claimed that France had no chemical weapons and would produce none in the future. Having no evidence to the contrary, it should be accepted that France no longer has a chemical warfare (CW) program nor does it have chemical weapons stockpiles. France ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) on 2 March 1995.
France has an estimated 60 operational Air-Sol-Moyenne Porte (ASMP) supersonic missiles with a 300-kilometer range. The ASMP Ameliore (ASMP-A), with a range of 500 kilometers, is expected to enter service in 2007. The ASMPs are carried on 3 squads (60 total) of Mirage 2000N bombers and carrier-based aircraft. France's four operational nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) carry a total of 48 M4 and M45 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) with 288 total warheads. France deactivated and dismantled its 18 S3D intermediate-range missiles on the Plateau d'Albion in the 1990s. France is a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime.
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Updated September 2007 |
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