Journalists given rare access to France’s Rubis-class nuclear-powered submarine

Built in the 1980s, the submarine is being phased out from the French navy in favour of newer models.

Transcript

00:00 Journalists have been given rare access to one of France's Ruby-class nuclear-powered

00:07 submarines. This is one of three in the French Navy and carries a crew of 70. It's powered

00:14 by a nuclear reactor, so can patrol the ocean for months at a time without refueling.

00:21 The Ruby can carry anti-submarine and anti-ship torpedoes and missiles. One of its roles is

00:27 to protect the fleet of larger nuclear-armed submarines, of which France has four.

00:33 We are "summa nuclear d'attaque" meaning nuclear attack submarines. So that means that we have

00:39 nuclear propulsion, as I mentioned earlier, so we have all the advantages of nuclear propulsion.

00:45 But we have the conventional mission of submarines, meaning anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface

00:53 warfare, intelligence gathering, special forces, well, work with special forces, but we don't

01:00 have nuclear weapons on board this type of submarine.

01:09 This vessel will be escorting the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in an operation

01:13 in the Mediterranean with NATO.

01:20 The NATO group we will be joining includes Neptune Strike and Noble Shield, which are

01:27 NATO's permanent missions in the Mediterranean and NATO's reassurance missions, which we will

01:36 take part in as members of the escort of the NATO group.

01:43 But the Ruby class' days are numbered. The French Navy is replacing them with newer,

01:48 more modern and more heavily armed nuclear-powered submarines. Three have already been retired,

01:55 representing half the fleet.

01:58 [WHOOSH]

02:01 (dramatic music)