Literally cut in half! Images of the old aviso Chief Master L’Hersunk by “friendly” torpedo fire, are impressive. All it took was a single heavy F21 torpedo to send the old gray hull to the bottom.
Developed and manufactured by Naval Group, on its Gassin site in Var, the F21 wire-guided torpedo was fired from a nuclear attack submarine (SNA). But the Ministry of the Armed Forces does not specify whether it is a Rubis type SNA (only theAmethyst and the Perle still in service) or of the Suffren type (three have so far been delivered to the Navy).
Some will be surprised that the French Navy is still “oceanizing” – a nice word for sinking – some of its old combat vessels. The Ministry of the Armed Forces, which specifies that the former Chief Master L’Her had previously been decontaminated, justifies this experiment in these terms: “Given the tightening of the international context and the commissioning of the latest generation of complex munitions, it now appears relevant and possible to resort again, on an ad hoc basis, to such weapons experiments at sea”.
For completeness, this torpedo firing took place on December 14 in the Atlantic Ocean. The old hull sank several thousand meters deep and “represents no danger either for the environment or for maritime activities”.
