The French state-owned shipyard Naval is pressing ahead with the modernisation of France’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet. The “SSN De Grasse” is the fourth new vessel in the Barracuda class to be delivered.
France is to receive a total of six attack submarines (SSNs) from Naval Group. The fourth vessel was built in Cherbourg on behalf of the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) and has now been delivered.
The Barracuda programme, led in collaboration with the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), aims to replace the ‘Ruby-class’ nuclear-powered attack submarines, which have been in service since the early 1980s. The six new submarines are due to be delivered by 2030. The ‘Suffren’ was commissioned in June 2022, the ‘Duguay-Trouin’ in April 2024 and the ‘Tourville’ in July 2025.
‘Taking into account the lessons learnt from the first three submarines in the programme’, the ‘De Grasse’ was delivered exactly four months after the start of its first sea trials. Since being launched from the shipyard in May 2025, it has successively completed trials in port, the commissioning of the nuclear propulsion system in December 2025, and a four-month sea trial phase, which began on 24 February 2026.
According to official sources, the last two vessels in the series – the “Rubis” and the “Casiabanca” – are currently “at various stages of construction”. The Netherlands has also ordered Barracuda submarines from France.
Technical specifications
• Displacement (surface): 4,700 t
• Displacement (submerged): 5,200 t
• Length: 99 ,
• Diameter: 8.8 ,
• Armament: naval cruise missiles (NCM), F21 heavy torpedoes, modernised Exocet SM39 anti-ship guided missiles
• Hybrid propulsion: pressurised water reactor (based on the reactors of the ‘Triomphant’-class SSBNs and the aircraft carrier ‘Charles de Gaulle’), one propulsion turbine, two turbogenerators and two electric motors
• Crew: 65 crew members + commandos
