After the Ukrainian problem still showed no signs of a solution, the Ukrainian government began to seek help from European and American countries. European countries led by France and Germany did stand up for Ukraine at the first time to provide a series of support, which was mainly implemented in specific actions, mainly support for weapons and equipment, as well as some pressure on Russia at the diplomatic level. However, it is confusing that France has actually issued a strategic nuclear deterrent to Russia, hoping that Russia can make concessions on the Issue of Ukraine. So, does France really have the ability to force Russia to compromise? Today we will compare the nuclear forces of France and Russia.
France's air-based nuclear forces are mainly nuclear cruise missiles carried by tactical aircraft
We all know that France and Russia are also among the five permanent members, and both legitimately possess nuclear weapons. France is currently the only country in Europe with a perfect military industrial system, from aircraft carriers to small assault rifles, all of which can achieve independent production. Moreover, France is a traditional industrial and military power, so France's strategic nuclear deterrent should not be underestimated. According to the data currently available, France has 310 nuclear warheads in deployment, and France's most powerful strategic deterrent comes from four Triumph-class strategic nuclear submarines, each of which can carry 11 submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles. That is, France has the ability to launch 64 nuclear missiles at its own strategic adversaries at once.
French submarine-launched intercontinental missiles
But France's nuclear forces themselves are not particularly transparent, as the French Navy also has an unknown number of strategic nuclear submarines in storage. In addition, France is the only country in the world to possess air-launched nuclear weapons, and their tactical aircraft, such as the Rafale and Mirage 2000N fighters, can carry ASMP-A nuclear cruise missiles for nuclear strike missions. So France's strategic nuclear strike force to be the first waver is relatively considerable, but it is unlikely to be comparable to Russia.
France's strategic nuclear submarine technology is at the world's advanced level
During the Cold War, both the Soviet Union and the United States built a large number of nuclear warheads in the course of strategic confrontation. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia inherited a vast nuclear arsenal from the Soviet Union, which has shrunk in size in recent years. However, due to the large base, the size of the existing nuclear arsenal is still staggering. Although the risk of a global nuclear war has been significantly reduced, and Russia and the United States have reached a series of nuclear disarmament agreements in the past three decades, eliminating many relatively technologically backward nuclear warheads, but by 2022, Russia has deployed as many as 1456 nuclear warheads, and they also have a nearly equal number of stored nuclear warheads. Although these nuclear warheads cannot be pulled out and fired at any time, they can still be put into actual combat by raising the level of combat readiness in the first time of an armed conflict. As a result, the total number of strategic nuclear weapons that Russia can use after the outbreak of war may exceed 3,000.
Russia has always attached great importance to the research and development of missile nuclear vehicles
Moreover, Russia is one of the very few countries in the world with a trinity nuclear strike capability, with world-class land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and strategic bombers, and Russia's strategic nuclear submarines are dominant in some technical fields, and the scale of nuclear submarines is not small.
For example, Russia's fourth-generation intercontinental ballistic missile, the Satan, is currently the world's largest intercontinental ballistic missile, with a staggering range of 16,000 kilometers, a launch weight of 211 tons, and it can carry a nuclear warhead of 25 million tons of TNT equivalent at a time, or ten bullets of 5 million tons of TNT equivalent. That is to say, a single Satanic icing ballistic missile is enough to deliver a devastating nuclear strike against ten large cities of Russia's strategic rivals. This earth-shattering weapon must have attracted considerable attention from the French.
The strategic bomber force assigned by the Russian Air and Space Force is second only to the United States, and the strategic deterrence effect is also the world's top. At present, Russia's air-based nuclear forces are composed of "troikas", which are Tu-22M3 bombers, Tu-95 bombers and Tu-160 bombers. For example, the Figure 160 supersonic strategic bomber, although this aircraft was developed in the former Soviet Union, but the performance is still world-class, so whether from the number of nuclear warheads, or from the perspective of the comparison of strategic deterrence capabilities, Russia has an absolute advantage over France. France's attempt to get Russia to compromise with nuclear forces was impossible from the start.
On the whole, france's statement is more of a diplomatic statement, and does not mean that it is really willing to let itself fall into a major threat of nuclear strike for the sake of other countries.