France to expand nuclear arsenal, Macron announces

French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will increase its nuclear arsenal and for the first time, allow the temporary deployment of its nuclear-armed aircraft to allied countries. Macron said this at a military base at Île Longue nuclear submarine base in Brittany, on France’s Atlantic coast that hosts the country’s ballistic missile submarines. He outlined how French nuclear weapons fit into the security of Europe as leaders there express concerns over recurring tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. France has been the only nuclear power in the European Union since Britain’s exit from the bloc in 2020.
An upgrade of the country’s arsenal was “essential”, Macron said, adding that he had decided to order an increase. France’s estimated 290 nuclear warheads, a number that has not changed since 1992, constitute the world’s fourth largest nuclear arsenal, after Russia, the US and China.The new model would allow France’s strategic deterrent to be “spread across the European continent” to “complicate the calculations of our adversaries”, Macron said. The doctrine could also involve “the conventional participation of allied forces in our nuclear activities”, he added.
"The next 50 years will be an era of nuclear weapons," he said. He announced the launch in 2036 of a new nuclear-armed submarine to be called The Invincible. He said eight other European countries – the UK, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden and Denmark – had agreed to participate in a new "advanced deterrence" strategy. He added that France's partners would also share in the development of "auxiliary" capacities under the new nuclear doctrine: space-based alarm systems; air defence to shoot down incoming drones and missiles; and long-range missiles.