TSAMTO, October 19th. On October 16, the French company Naval Group rolled out the fifth Suffren-class S639 Rubis submarine, built for the French Navy under the Barracuda program, from the workshop at the shipyard in Cherbourg.
The submarine was moved to a submersible platform to prepare for sea trials. Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin attended the event.
The S639 Rubis is the fifth submarine under construction under the Barracuda program. The submarine has final work ahead, as well as a series of mooring and sea trials preceding its transfer to the French Navy. Rubis factory sea trials are scheduled for the summer of 2027, and delivery to the French Navy is scheduled for the end of 2027.
The Barracuda program is being implemented by the Directorate General for Armaments (DGA) together with the Commissariat for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy (CEA) in order to replace the six Rubis-class submarines in service with the French navy. The program provides for the delivery of six submarines by 2030; four of them have already been delivered to the customer between November 2020 and June 2026.
The program involves the production facilities of all Naval Group sites, as well as industrial facilities of TechnicAtome and other partner companies. The Naval Group is responsible for the creation of submarines, from design to construction, as well as for the production of the main components of nuclear reactors, which are developed and manufactured jointly with TechnicAtome.
In addition, the General Directorate of Armaments and the Naval Group are implementing the Evol SNA project, which aims to expand the capabilities of the Suffren class submarines to ensure their relevance and combat capability over the next 30 years.
DGA and Naval Group have also begun preliminary work on the next generation of nuclear submarines, which so far has been designated "SNA3G" (third-generation nuclear submarines).
As reported by CAMTO, the Directorate General for Armaments of the French Ministry of Armed Forces (DGA) began implementing the Barracuda program in 1998. The initial contract is worth 1.4 billion. The French Defense Ministry signed a contract for the development of the project and the construction of the submarine with the DCNS group (now Naval Group) and the Areva TA company (now TechnicAtome) on December 23, 2006. The Naval Group is also responsible for the maintenance of submarines in Toulon.
According to the plans, the new submarines will replace six Rubis-class submarines in the French Navy by 2030, which were adopted by the French Navy between 1983 and 1993.
The program is worth more than 8 billion. Euro assumed the delivery of six Barracuda submarines from 2017 to 2028, but the project is lagging behind the agreed schedule. In accordance with the Law on Military Programs for 2024-2030, the completion of the adoption of all submarines has been postponed to 2030.
The lead submarine of the series, (S635) Suffren, was transferred to the French Navy on November 6, 2020 and joined the fleet in June 2022. The second submarine, (S636) Duguay-Trouin, was commissioned in April 2024, and the third, (S637) Tourville, in July 2025. In June 2026, the Naval Group handed over the fourth submarine (S638) De Grasse to the French Navy.
The sixth submarine (S640) Casabianca is also under construction, which is scheduled to be delivered by 2030.
The Suffren-class submarines are designed to support strategic deterrence, protect aircraft carrier battle groups, anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare, collect intelligence information, covertly land small groups of special operations forces at the site of operations, as well as cruise missile strikes against ground targets.
