France cut its nuclear arsenal to under 300 warheads

[Kailash Kumar]

France cut its nuclear arsenal to under 300 warheads

Dylan Malyasov

February 7, 2020

President Emmanuel Macron announced that France already has cut in the atomic arsenal to under 300 warheads.

“France has cut nuclear arsenal to under 300 warheads,” said Emmanuel Macron in an address to military officers graduating in Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Friday that European nations “cannot remain spectators” faced with a potential nuclear arms race, urging them to push an “international arms control agenda”.

“Europeans must realise collectively that in the absence of a legal framework, they could rapidly face a new race for conventional weapons, even nuclear weapons, on their own soil,” Macron said in a speech laying out France”s post-Brexit strategy for its nuclear arsenal.

He added that France had already reduced its number of warheads to under 300, giving France “the legitimacy to demand concrete moves from other nuclear powers toward global disarmament that is gradual, credible and can be verified”.

The French president also proposed a budget of around €37 billion in order to modernize France’s nuclear capabilities as it remains the only nuclear power state in the European Union following Brexit.

https://defence-blog.com/navy/france-cut-its-nuclear-arsenal-to-under-300-warheads.html

 

[vostok]

300 from how many? 30000?

 

[Kailash Kumar]

300 from how many? 30000?

On 21 March 2008, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that France will reduce its aircraft deliverable nuclear weapon stockpile (which currently consists of 60 TN 81 warheads) by a third (20 warheads) and bring the total French nuclear arsenal to fewer than 300 warheads.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

So, they went from 320 to 300 warheads.

 

[Metal 0-1]

What they need nukes for. French are first one to surrender.

 

[vostok]

On 21 March 2008, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that France will reduce its aircraft deliverable nuclear weapon stockpile (which currently consists of 60 TN 81 warheads) by a third (20 warheads) and bring the total French nuclear arsenal to fewer than 300 warheads.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

So, they went from 320 to 300 warheads.

He reduced his arsenal by 20 units and got “the legitimacy to demand concrete moves from other nuclear powers toward global disarmament that is gradual, credible and can be verified”? Sometimes he sound ridiculous.

 

[Kailash Kumar]

He reduced his arsenal by 20 units and got “the legitimacy to demand concrete moves from other nuclear powers toward global disarmament that is gradual, credible and can be verified”? Sometimes he sound ridiculous.

Well, they should have reduced their arsenal with more than 20 units in order to be credible in calling out other nuclear powers to also reduce their arsenal.
That is true.

 

[vostok]

Well, they should have reduced their arsenal with more than 20 units in order to be credible in calling out other nuclear powers to also reduce their arsenal.
That is true.

Okey. Russia and USA will scrap 20 units each. Will Macron be happy?

 

[Kailash Kumar]

Okey. Russia and USA will scrap 20 units each. Will Macron be happy?

When I said 'they' in my previous reply, I meant France.
So, France should have reduced their arsenal with more than 20 units before they can call out other nuclear powers.

But I do not think you should care if Macron is happy or not.
He says that France will demand concrete moves towards global disarmement, but nothing will come of it.

 

[vostok]

When I said 'they' in my previous reply, I meant France.
So, France should have reduced their arsenal with more than 20 units before they can call out other nuclear powers.

Oh, sorry. I thought you meant other nuclear powers.
Nevertheless, French arsenal is insignificant on the world scale. It's like Columbia demand oil-producing countries to reduce oil production.

 

[Kailash Kumar]

Oh, sorry. I thought you meant other nuclear powers.
Nevertheless, French arsenal is insignificant on the world scale. It's like Columbia demand oil-producing countries to reduce oil production.

That is why he was just talking.
He also knows that no other nuclear powered country will actually give in to his demands.

 

[Ghareeb_Da_Baal]

who is France against? what do they need nukes for?

 

[Dual Wielder]

who is France against? what do they need nukes for?

The Nazis... The Nazis are coming 75 years ago..

 

[Pandora]

Conventional parity is too uneven to scrap nukes entirely. US has a conventional edge over almost all nations so even if US decides to scrap nukes no one else will follow.

 

[Dante80]

What they need nukes for. French are first one to surrender.

One of the primary reasons that gave birth to Force de frappe was to provide France with a NATO-independent deterrence force. There was a valid argument back then that US could choose to "sacrifice" Europe to contain a potential nuclear conflict inside the continent after an invasion by USSR in NGP or the Fulda Gap. In that case, Europe would have been turned into a nuclear hell-scape, while both Russia and the continental US would be relatively unharmed.

France developed a focused national counter-value force to make sure that this won't happen. Having the ability to hit 10 large Russian cities and kill about 80 million people was a pretty compelling deterrence argument against any theater containment that would compromise the MAD doctrine. This is also the reason for France never having the need to produce and field thousands of warheads, like the two super-powers did. They simply did enough to make sure that everyone had skin in the game and was kept honest. This principle is usually referred to in French political debate as dissuasion du faible au fort (Weak-to-strong deterrence).

 

[vostok]

One of the primary reasons that gave birth to Force de frappe was to provide France with a NATO-independent deterrence force. There was a valid argument back then that US could choose to "sacrifice" Europe to contain a potential nuclear conflict inside the continent after an invasion by USSR in NGP or the Fulda Gap. In that case, Europe would have been turned into a nuclear hell-scape, while both Russia and the continental US would be relatively unharmed.

France developed a focused national counter-value force to make sure that this won't happen. Having the ability to hit 10 large Russian cities and kill about 80 million people was a pretty compelling deterrence argument against any theater containment that would compromise the MAD doctrine. This is also the reason for France never having the need to produce and field thousands of warheads, like the two super-powers did. They simply did enough to make sure that everyone had skin in the game and was kept honest. This principle is usually referred to in French political debate as dissuasion du faible au fort (Weak-to-strong deterrence).

Highly unlikely you can kill 80 million people in USSR with few dozens of French missiles from that era.