The M4 was a French
submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) deployed on the nuclear s (except the ''Redoutable'' herself, which was not refitted).
They entered service on May 1, 1985. They were the first French
MIRV
A multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) is an exoatmospheric ballistic missile payload containing several warheads, each capable of being aimed to hit a different target. The concept is almost invariably associated with i ...
-capable nuclear missiles, with six 150
kilotonne
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be , which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a m ...
warheads.
They were replaced by the improved
M45 SLBM missile which is currently in active service aboard the
.
Operators
;
*
French Navy
The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
References
Submarine-launched ballistic missiles of France
Nuclear weapons of France
1985 establishments in France
Military equipment introduced in the 1980s
{{France-hist-stub