French submarine Redoutable (S611)

*Le Redoutable* (S611)
History
Builder	DCN Cherbourg
Laid down	November 1964
Launched	29 March 1967
Commissioned	1 December 1971
Decommissioned	1 December 1991
Stricken	December 1991
Homeport	Île Longue
Fate	Museum ship
General characteristics
Class and type	Redoutable-class submarine
Displacement	8,000 tons (submerged)
Length	128 metres (420 ft)
Beam	10.6 metres (35 ft)
Draught	10 metres (33 ft)
Decks	3
Installed power	nuclear
Propulsion	One GWC PAR K15 PWR, 16,000 shp, HEU <= 90%
Speed	over 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Range	Essentially unlimited
Complement	15 officers; 120 sailors;
Sensors and ; processing systems	1 DRUA 33; 1 DMUX 21; 1 DSUV 61B VLF; 1 DUUX 5; ARUR 12 radar detector;
Armament	16 M20 MSBS (Mer-Sol Balistique Stratégique) nuclear missiles; four 550 mm torpedo tubes; F-17 and L-5 torpedoes; SM-39 Exocet;

Le Redoutable (S 611) was the lead boat of her class of ballistic missile submarines in the French Marine nationale.

Commissioned on 1 December 1971, the boat was the first French SNLE (Sous-marin Nucléaire Lanceur d'Engins, "Device-Launching Nuclear Submarine"). The boat was initially fitted with 16 M1 MSBS (Mer-Sol Balistique Stratégique) submarine-launched ballistic missiles, delivering 450 kilotons at 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi). In 1974, the boat was refitted with the M2 missile, and later with the M20, each delivering a one-megatonne warhead at a range over 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi). Le Redoutable ("formidable" or "fearsome" in French) was the only ship of the class not to be refitted with the M4 missile.

Le Redoutable had a 20-year duty history, with 51 patrols of 70 days each, totalling an estimated 90,000 hours of diving and 1.27 million kilometres (790,000 mi) of distance, the equivalent of travelling 32 times around the Earth.^[2]

The boat was decommissioned in 1991. In 2000, the boat was removed from the water and placed in a purpose-built 136 metres (446 ft) dry dock,^[2] and over two years was made into an exhibit. This was a monumental task, the biggest portion of which was removing the nuclear reactor and replacing the midsection with an empty steel tube. In 2002, the boat opened as a museum ship at the Cité de la Mer naval museum in Cherbourg-Octeville, France, being now the largest submarine open to the public^[2] and the only nearly-complete ballistic missile submarine hull open to the public — although several museums display small portions, such as sails and/or parts of rudders from such submarines. Special dinner events for organizations aboard this boat's interior spaces are offered by Cité de la Mer.^[2]