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Triomphant submarine from Wikipedia
 
The Triomphant class of ballistic missile submarines of the French Navy is the active class of four boats that entered service in 1997, 1999, 2004, and 2010. These four supersede the older Redoutable-class, and they provide the ocean-based component (the Force océanique stratégique) of France's nuclear deterrent strike force, the Force de Frappe.

The first three boats are all armed with the French-produced and armed M45 intermediate-range missile, and the fourth vessel, Terrible, has tested and is equipped with the more advanced M51 missile. Each of the first three boats are to be retrofitted to the M51 missile standard, starting with Vigilant in Winter 2010, then Triomphant and ending with Téméraire in 2018.

SNLE-NG

In French, these are called Sous-Marin Nucléaire Lanceur d'Engins de Nouvelle Génération (English: "Next Generation Device-Launching Nuclear Submarine"), abbreviated as SNLE-NG. They have replaced all of the Redoutable-class boats, with the last of those six boats being decommissioned in 2008. These submarines carry 16 Submarine-launched Ballistic Missile launching tubes apiece.

This class reportedly produces approximately 1/1000 of the detectable noise of the Redoutable-class boats (submarines), and they are ten times more sensitive in detecting other submarines Initially armed with the M45 Missile, they are designed to carry the new M51 missile, which entered active service in 2010. As of October 2010, an M51 has been test-fired from one of these submarines across the Atlantic Ocean from near France to the west, and is equipped on the Terrible.
 

Name: Triomphant
Builders: DCNS
Operators: French Navy
Completed: 4
Class & type:  Ballistic Missile Submarine
Displacement: surfaced 12,640 tonnes
submerged 14,335 tonnes
Length: 138 m (453 ft)
Beam: 12.5 m (41ft)
Draught: 10.6 m (34.8 ft)
Speed - Surfaced: 25 kn
Range -  Surfaced:  unlimited
Complement: 111
 
These boats were all constructed by the DCNS, and they carry an armament of 16 M45 SLBM or M51 SLBM missiles manufactured by the Aérospatiale company (now EADS Astrium Space Transportation.), plus conventional torpedoes and Exocet anti-ship missiles.

List of submarines

The French Navy's goal is to operate a force of four ballistic missile submarines (comparable with the Royal Navy's Vanguard-class submarines), of which two of the French boats are expected to be on patrol at any given time.
Name  Construction began  Launched  Commissioned
Triomphant  9 June 1986  26 March 1994  21 March 1997
Téméraire  18 December 1993  21 January 1998  23 December 1999
Vigilant  January 1996  19 September 2003  26 November 2004
Terrible  24 October 2000  21 March 2008  20 September 2010

Accidents

On 3 February or 4 February 2009, the Triomphant apparently collided with the Royal Navy submarine HMS Vanguard. The Triomphant was reported to have proceeded to Brest under her own power, submerged, but with extensive damage to her sonar dome.
 

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