Suffren-class submarine
French submarine class
The Suffren class is a class of nuclear-powered attack submarines, designed by the French shipbuilder Naval Group (formerly DCNS) for the French Navy. It is intended to replace the Rubis class. Construction began in 2007 and the lead boat of the class, Suffren, was commissioned on 6 November 2020. It officially entered active service on 3 June 2022.
History
Development
In October 1998, the Delegation Générale pour l'Armement, the French government's defense procurement agency, established an integrated project team consisting of the Naval Staff, DCN (now known as Naval Group), Technicatome and the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique, a regulatory body that oversees nuclear power plants, to oversee a program the design of a new attack submarine class, called Barracuda. DCN was to be the boat's designer and builder while Technicatome (since acquired by Areva) was to be responsible for the nuclear power plant. The two companies were to act jointly as a single prime contractor to share the industrial risks, manage the schedules, and be responsible for the design's performance and costs, which at the time was estimated to be US$4.9 billion.
On 22 December 2006, the French government placed a €7.9 billion order for six Suffren submarines with Naval Group and their nuclear power plants with Areva-Technicatome. According to the DGA "Competition at the subcontractor level will be open to foreign companies for the first time." According to the contract, the first boat was to commence sea trials in early 2016, with delivery occurring in late 2016/early 2017. This was to be followed by entry into service in late 2017.
“Suffren-class submarine” enters the record as french submarine class. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Suffren-class, submarine and French can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Suffren-class submarine” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Suffren-class, submarine and French provides the most credible route into that argument.
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 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q808804. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2007, 2020, 2022 and 1998.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Suffren-class submarine”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Suffren-class submarine primary sources, Suffren-class submarine archive and Suffren-class research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Suffren-class submarine”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Suffren-class submarine” 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.