The French Armed Forces has begun a nuclear deterrence exercise called Poker-2025-1 on Tuesday, March 25. The exercise primarily involves training in the task of nuclear strikes using ASMP-A missiles by Rafale B fighters assigned to French strategic forces and organized into two squadrons of 20 aircraft.
This exercise is complex, because while the "blues" are training to deliver a nuclear strike in close cooperation with cover aircraft, air tankers, AWACS aircraft, etc. At the same time, the "reds" are repelling this strike with no less forces.
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Poker exercise is traditional and take place four times a year, but this time they differ in that they began in the morning, writes the French publication Air et Cosmos, because usually all Poker exercises took place at night. The last such daytime exercise was held in April 2021.
In general, the scenario of all Poker exercises is approximately the same. French nuclear-capable Rafale B fighters, Rafale and Mirage cover fighters, A330 MRTT tankers (12 of which are also assigned to the Strategic Air Forces) and E-3F Sentry airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, which play the role of the "aggressor", take off from their air bases and head to a holding area in the Brittany region in the north-west of the country.
From there, the raid begins, with the aircraft flying at high altitude over the whole of France, over the Bay of Biscay and the Pyrenees, and, from the Mediterranean, heading towards the "enemy", whose control zone is 250 km from the coast. It is at this point that the main phase of the exercise begins, as the "blues" have to break through the "reds'" air defenses.
Powerful jamming is placed on the surveillance radar as well as the SAMP/T air defense system, and SCALP cruise missiles are "launched" at their positions and at the command posts. Covering fighters, i.e. regular Rafale and Mirage, begin battles with the "red" fighters, the same Rafale and Mirage.
All this is done so that the Rafale B aircraft, each carrying one ASMP-A missile, can break into the launch areas at low altitude. At the same time, for the ASMP-A missile, which is equipped with a thermonuclear charge with a variable power of 100-300 kt, the target can be up to 500 km away.
Of course, no one launches ASMP-A over France itself. Moreover, not even during every Poker is a training launch carried out. Usually, a real launch of the missile takes place once every few years - the last time it happened on May 22, 2024, when a modified version of the ASMP-R missile was launched for the first time. This missile uses an updated thermonuclear warhead of similar power, and the range, according to some sources, has been increased to 600 km.
It is worth recalling that for France, the air nuclear component is more of a tactical one, because the main nuclear strike, one way or another, is to be delivered by M51 ballistic missiles, each of which carries six warheads. Their carriers are four Le Triomphant-class submarines, each of which can carry 16 missiles.
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