France and weapons of mass destruction
| France | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| First nuclear weapon test | February 13, 1960 |
| First fusion weapon test | August 23, 1968 |
| Last nuclear test | January 27, 1996 |
| Largest yield test | 2.6 Mt (August 20, 1968) |
| Total tests | 210 |
| Peak stockpile | 540 (in 1992) |
| Current stockpile (usable and not) | 300 warheads (2016) |
| Current strategic arsenal | 290 usable warheads (2016) (methods of delivery include ICBMs, Bombers, and SLBMs) |
| Cumulative strategic arsenal in megatonnage | ~51.6 |
| Maximum missile range | >10,000 km/6,000 mi (M51 SLBM) |
| NPT party | Yes (1992, one of five recognized powers) |
France is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but is not known to possess or develop any chemical or biological weapons. France was the fourth country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon in 1960, under the government of Charles de Gaulle. The French military is currently thought to retain a weapons of around 300 operational nuclear warheads, making it the in the world, speaking in terms of warheads, not megatons. The weapons are part of the national Force de frappe, developed in the late 1950s and 1960s to give France the ability to distance itself from NATO while having a means of nuclear deterrence under sovereign control.
France did not sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty, which gave it the option to conduct further nuclear tests until it signed and ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996 and 1998 respectively. France denies currently having chemical weapons, ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1995, and acceded to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1984. France had also ratified the in 1926.
France was one of the nuclear pioneers, going back to the work of Marie Skłodowska Curie. Curie’s last assistant Bertrand Goldschmidt became the father of the French Bomb. French Professor Frederic Joliot-Curie, High Commissioner for Atomic Energy, told the New York Herald Tribune that the 1945 "Report on atomic Energy for Military Purposes" in 1945 wrongfully omitted the contributions of French scientists.
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Wikipedia