Le Triomphant (S616) — French Ballistic Missile Submarine Model, 30 in
Le Triomphant (S616) — French Ballistic Missile Submarine Model, 30 in
How big is it?
Length about 76 cm / 30.0 in. Drawn to scale; the model outline is a simplified shape.
Model details
- Size
- 30 in / 76 cm
- Construction
- Handcrafted
- Condition
- Fully assembled, ready to display
- Display
- Wooden base with brass nameplate
- Collection
- Battle Ship Models
- Item no.
- CM430
A French nuclear ballistic missile submarine — one quarter of a nation's entire nuclear deterrent, at 30 inches.
Specification
- 30 inches
- Handcrafted hull with fin and control surface detail
- Missile compartment casing, hydroplanes and pump-jet detail
- Mounted on a display base with nameplate
- Fully assembled
The boat
Le Triomphant was commissioned in 1997, the first of four boats carrying France's sea-based nuclear deterrent. At least one is at sea at all times, and has been continuously since 1972.
In February 2009 she collided with HMS Vanguard in the Atlantic — two ballistic missile submarines, both carrying nuclear weapons, neither of which had detected the other. Both were operating on the same principle of maximum stealth in the same broad patrol areas, and each was simply too quiet for the other's sonar. Both returned to port damaged.
It remains the clearest possible demonstration of how effective modern submarine silencing has become.