The Last of the Le Reduoutable's

The French ballistic missile submarine L'Inflexible, the last Le Redoutable class ballistic missile submarine, sailed for Cherbourg on January 14th to be decommissioned. After serving for 22 years, the submarine is set to be replaced by the fourth and final new Le Triomphant class ballistic missile submarine Le Terrible, due to be commissioned in March of this year.

It really is a shame the French have decided to scrap these submarines, at barely 30 years they are optimal platforms to enable French special forces, of which the French have a lot of. The conversion process of ballistic missile submarine to special operations submarine would be even cheaper than the conversion the US undertook with the Ohio class, which focused mostly on turning ballistic missile submarines into conventional missile submarine platforms with special forces capability.

Considering how much progress the French have been making with unmanned systems, and observing the change in strategy to be more active with their naval forces in forward theaters, these submarines represented an opportunity lost for French special forces.

Perhaps the UK MoD will come to its senses when they look to replace their Vanguard class with a new ballistic missile submarine, and take the opportunity to outfit the Royal Navy with a special forces capability recycling older systems for a new mission. Probably not, but they could use the hulls... of any type.