After 37 years of active service, the nuclear attack submarine (SNA) Emeraude must leave Brest this week for a final journey to the naval base of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (Manche), where it will be decommissioned.
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The nuclear attack submarine L'Emeraude is preparing, in Brest, to make its final journey to Cherbourg, where it will be decommissioned. This is the end of 19 years of missions under the world's seas.
“It’s obviously a pang in the heart because we are very attached to it: it’s a human adventure with its hard moments and its moments of joy”declared Commander Yoann Jose-Maria, commander of the Emeraude, during a meeting with the press this Friday in Brest.
More “it is also a sign that the French fleet is renewing itself to always achieve the highest possible operational performance”added the officer.
The nuclear submarine Le Vigilant under maintenance in Brest. “The operation will last 30 months”
The Emerald is the fourth Rubis-class SNA (nuclear attack submarine) to be decommissioned, after the Saphir in 2019, the Rubis in 2022 and the Casabianca in 2023. The Rubis-type SNAs must all be replaced by New generation SNA, Suffren class, by 2030.
Equipped with nuclear propulsion, the SNA's mission is to protect strategic buildings such as the Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier or ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), which carry nuclear missiles. They also collect intelligence.
74 meters long, for 70 sailors on board, the Emeraude entered active service in September 1988.
“He has traveled all the seas of the globe. That's nearly 19 years under the surface of the seas, and more than a hundred stopovers in France and around the globe. He has also traveled around the world around sixty times. world, with more than 2.4 million kilometers”described Commander Jose-Maria.
On March 30, 1994, an accident in the engine compartment caused the death of ten sailors, including the captain, during a dive off the coast of Toulon.
“We are their heirs and we pay tribute to them every year”said the commander.
