France and weapons of mass destruction
projects and lists of French weapons of mass destruction
France is one of the five nuclear-weapon states recognized by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). As of 2025, the stockpile country's nuclear forces, the Force de dissuasion is estimated at 290 deployed nuclear warheads, making it the fourth-largest confirmed in the world numerically, with delivery primarily by Triomphant-class submarines, and also three cruise missile-armed fighter squadrons. France is not known to possess or develop any chemical or biological weapons. France remains the only NATO member to not participate in its Nuclear Planning Group.
France was the fourth country to test a nuclear weapon, in 1960, and tested its first thermonuclear weapon in 1968. Charles de Gaulle was influential in the country's decision to develop both weapons and nuclear forces. France is also believed to have tested neutron bomb designs. The forces were developed in the late 1950s and 1960s to give France the ability to distance itself from NATO while still deterring the Soviet Union. France was the last of the five NPT-recognized nuclear-weapon states to ratify the treaty, in 1992. The same year, its arsenal peaked at 540 warheads, and was the world's third largest until being overtaken by China in 2020.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28053842. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2025, 1960, 1968 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “France and weapons of mass destruction” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.