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THE KEYS TO THE ÉLYSÉE. Until the end of the presidential campaign, the cheat sheet of the Journal du Dimanche will define the words of the political debate. Because there are never any stupid questions, our section will go over the concepts used by all the candidates and commentators without us ever taking the time to explain them.
The announcement on Saturday by Vladimir Putin from ” put on alert » Russian deterrent forces including the nuclear arsenal, revived a doctrine that dates back to the Cold War: the balance of terror. Emmanuel Macron defined French-style nuclear deterrence in February 2020 at the École de guerre: “ It is the possibility of unacceptable damage to a potential adversary which, without even the threat being made, restricts effective violence. »
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France thus relies on an arsenal which counts 290 nuclear warheads selon la Federation of American Scientists (against more than 6,000 for Russia). The budget for maintaining the nuclear strike force represented 22.8% of the defense budget in 2019. This arsenal has revolved around three poles, since 1996 and the abandonment of surface-to-surface missiles: the Strategic Ocean Force (FOST), les Strategic Air Forces (FAS) and the Nuclear Naval Air Force (FANu). The FOST is four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, which can each carry 16 M51 sea-to-surface missiles. Each of these missiles has the power of 1 000 Hiroshima. Two fighter squadrons, a transformation squadron and a support squadron form the strategic air forces, which corresponds to around fifty Rafale B fighter planes. They can land on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, the main element of the FANuwith his escort.