Arms Control and Proliferation Profile: France

As a nuclear-weapons state under the NPT, France maintains the world’s fourth largest nuclear arsenal, estimated to include 290 nuclear warheads. Since it eliminated its land-based ICBMs beginning in 1996, 83 percent of these warheads are designed for delivery through SLBMs, with the remainder affixed to ALCMs carried by combat aircraft. France has taken significant steps toward disarmament—including halving its warhead total since its Cold War peak, no longer deploying nuclear weapons on its aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, and extending the time it takes to launch nuclear weapons to several days—and it adheres to a principle of “strict sufficiency” whereby it keeps its nuclear arsenal at the lowest possible level in accordance with the strategic context.

Contents

Major Multilateral Arms Control Agreements and Treaties

Export Control Regimes, Nonproliferation Initiatives, and Safeguards

Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Negative Security Assurances

Nuclear Weapons Programs, Policies, and Practices

• The Nuclear Arsenal, an Overview
• Delivery Systems
• Ballistic Missile Defense Systems
• Fissile Material
• Proliferation Record
• Nuclear Doctrine

Biological Weapons

Chemical Weapons

Other Arms Control and Nonproliferation Activities

• Conference on Disarmament (CD)

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Major Multilateral Arms Control Agreements and Treaties

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Export Control Regimes, Nonproliferation Initiatives, and Safeguards

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Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Negative Security Assurances

For an introduction to the Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones, see our factsheet.

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Nuclear Weapons Programs, Policies, and Practices

The Nuclear Arsenal, an Overview

Delivery Systems

Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM)

• In 1996, France decided to eliminate its nuclear-armed land-based ballistic missiles.

Submarines and Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM)

Submarines:

• France’s nuclear submarine force consists of 4 Triomphant- class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs): Le Triomphant, Le Téméraire, Le Vigilant, and Le Terrible, which are under the command of FOST (La Force Océanique Stratégique or Strategic Ocean Force).
• This fleet forms the backbone of the France’s nuclear deterrent and carries approximately 80 percent of the nuclear arsenal. It is based at the Île Longue peninsula, south of Brest in the Brittany region of France.
• At least one submarine remains on deterrence patrol, one is preparing for patrol, and one is returning to port. The fourth submarine, as per the Triomphant-class’ extensive maintenance cycle, will be undergoing overhaul at any given time. 
• The first boat of a third-generation submarine class, the SNLE-3G, is under construction at the Cherbourg submarine yard and will likely enter service after 2035..

Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs)

• France fields the following submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs):
  • M51.1 – The French reportedly have 16 M51.1 missiles carrying a total of 80 TN75 warheads. Each missile can carry up to six 100 kt multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), with a range of 6,000+ km.
  • M51.2 – The French reportedly have 32 M51.2 missiles, carrying a total of 160 TNO warheads. The TNO (tête nucléaire océanique) warheads are a reportedly stealthier warhead than the TN75. The M51.2 was flight tested in July 2016 and then declared operational in December 2017. Each missile can carry up to six new 150 kt TN MIRVs, with a range of 9,000+ km. 
  • M51.3 – In a joint venture, Airbus and Safran are developing the M51.3, which is scheduled for completion by 2025.
• In 2006, former President Jacques Chirac stated that "The number of nuclear warheads has been reduced in certain of the missiles in our submarines," implying that French SLBMs do not carry the maximum number of nuclear warheads. This decision was supposedly made to improve targeting flexibility against regional powers, as well as extend the range and improve the precision of the missiles.

Strategic Combat Aircraft

• The French Air Force operates 40 Rafale aircraft which are capable of carrying and delivering nuclear payloads.
• France’s Naval Force also operates a nuclear-capable squadron of Rafale MF3 aircraft that are stationed onboard the Charles de Gaulle, France’s only aircraft carrier and the only surface ship equipped to carry nuclear weapons in NATO.
• Rafale aircraft carry a 300 kt warhead on an Air-Sol Moyenne Portée -Amelioreor Plus (ASMPA) ALCM. The ASMPA has a range of around 600 km.
• France, Germany, and Spain are jointly developing a sixth-generation combat aircraft with pvotential nuclear capabilities.

Ballistic Missile Defense Systems

France is part of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA), a collective missile defense system operated by NATO allies. To learn more, see: "The European Phased Adaptive Approach at a Glance."

Fissile Material

Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU)

• After ending its production of HEU in June 1996, President Jacques Chirac announced in February 1996 that France no longer produced fissile material for weapons purposes and that would it would dismantle its fissile material production facilities.
• As of April 2024, France is believed to possess an HEU stockpile of around 31± 6 metric tons.
• Of that total, it is estimated that 26 ± 6 metric tons is military HEU. There exists significant uncertainty over this figure due to a lack of public information about French HEU production.
• As of December 2022, France has declared a 5.3 metric ton stockpile of civilian HEU to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A large percentage of this civilian stock is believed to be of U.S. and Russian origin for use in research-reactor fuel.

Plutonium

• France ceased its production of separated plutonium in 1992.
• As of April 2024, France is estimated to possess a military plutonium stockpile of 6±1 metric tons.
• As of October 2017, France reported holding 91.9 tons of domestic unirradiated plutonium, the second largest stockpile globally, and 14.3 metric tons of reprocessed foreign unirradiated plutonium, of which 14.1 metric tons belongs to Japan.
• France is one of the few countries that continues to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, and it accepts fuel from foreign countries for that purpose. Its Orano La Hague plant has a commercial reprocessing capacity of about 1,700 tons of used nuclear fuel per annum (around half of the world’s light water reactor fuel reprocessing capacity as of 2009).  France uses separated plutonium to fabricate mixed oxide (MOX) fuel that is used in light water reactors.

 Proliferation Record

• France officially maintains a long-standing position in support of nonproliferation activities.
• In 1957, France signed a major nuclear cooperation agreement with Israel even though it was generally understood that Israel was interested in potentially developing a nuclear arsenal. France halted the agreement in 1960.
• France built the Osirak reactor in Iraq despite warnings from other governments that the reactor might be used to support a secret Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Paris declined to rebuild the reactor after Israel bombed the plant in 1981.
• France remains among the world’s top suppliers of peaceful nuclear facilities and expertise.

Nuclear Doctrine

French nuclear policy is one of calculated ambiguity regarding first-use of nuclear weapons. France adheres to its principle of “strict sufficiency” whereby it keeps its nuclear arsenal at the lowest possible level in accordance with the strategic context. In its 2013 White Paper on Defence and National Security, France claims that its deterrence strategy is strictly defensive and that “The use of nuclear weapons would only be conceivable in extreme circumstances of legitimate self-defense” and that nuclear deterrence “protects France from any State-led aggression against its vital interests, of whatever origin and in whatever form” including terrorism. French Presidents Hollande and Macron both reiterated this nuclear doctrine. In May 2015, France reaffirmed the 1995 negative security assurance to the UN (Resolution 984) not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states-parties to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) unless it is facing an invasion or sustained attack against its territories, armed forces, or states with which it has security agreement and the attack is in alliance with a nuclear-weapon state.

Paris declared that it took steps in 1992 and 1996 to lower the alert status of nuclear forces. Depending on the alert status, French nuclear forces require between days and hours to launch. Accordingly, France does not have a "launch on warning" policy or capability and relies on the survivability of its force to ensure retaliation.  

Testing:

France conducted 210 nuclear tests. The first test occurred Feb.13, 1960, and the last test took place Jan. 27, 1996. France was the fourth country to conduct a nuclear weapon test. For a full accounting of these tests, please see our Nuclear Testing Tally factsheet.

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Biological Weapons

• Little is known about past French biological weapons activities, which reportedly included research on anthrax, botulinum toxin, cholera, ricin, rinderpest, and salmonella over two periods: 1921 to 1926, and 1935 to 1940.
• France is not suspected of having a current offensive biological weapons program, and under France’s 1972 Law on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons, it is illegal to produce or stockpile these weapons. France is believed to have stopped its program after WWII.
• France continues to uphold its 2004 Code of Defense which states that “The development, production, possession, stockpiling, acquisition, and transfer of microbiological agents, other biological agents and biological toxins, whatever their origin and mode of production, which are of a kind and quantity not suited for prophylactic, protection or other pacific purposes, are prohibited.”
• France acceded to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) on Sep. 27, 1984, and is also a member of the Australia Group.
• France annually submits reports as confidence-building measures under the BWC and encourages other states to follow suit. It also hosts the annual plenary meeting of the Australia Group.
• France maintains a biodefense program that it claims is in strict compliance with the BWC.

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Chemical Weapons

• During World War I, France produced and used mustard gas and phosgene. France maintained stockpiles of these weapons at the beginning of World War II but did not use them.
• After World War II, France resumed offensive chemical weapons research and testing, and in the 1960s it manufactured Sarin and VX nerve agents.
• France destroyed its stockpiles of chemical weapons prior to 1988. President François Mitterrand claimed, in a 1988 speech to the United Nations, that France no longer had any chemical weapons and ended production.
• France signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in Paris in 1993 and ratified it in 1995. It also holds that it displays “exemplary” cooperation with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

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Other Arms Control and Nonproliferation Activities

Conference on Disarmament (CD)      
The CD was formed in 1979 as a multilateral disarmament negotiation forum for the international community. France has regularly participated in its meetings. On April 9th, 2015, France formally deposited a draft fissile material cutoff treaty at the CD. 

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