French President Emmanuel Macron during his speech on advanced nuclear deterrence announced they together with Germany and Britain will work on creating long-range ground-based ballistic missile with 2,500km range, within ELSA (European Long-Range Strike Approach) initiative framework.
It is also announced that in future France plans to mate its V-MAX hypersonic glider, being developed by Ariane Group company, with this ballistic missile, thus forming long-range hypersonic missile. Opex 360 reports this.
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Despite new 2,500km-range ballistic missile being planned specifically with conventional warhead, meaning non-nuclear, France with its plans to subsequently use this missile as boost stage for V-MAX glider effectively transforms it into quite nuclear.
The fact is this V-MAX hypersonic glider is evidently being developed in France as means for delivering thermonuclear charges over long distance through multilayered air defense, specifically directly at targets in russia. Thus, thanks to V-MAX integration onto new ballistic missile, France can obtain ground-based nuclear weapons.
Moreover, despite this ballistic missile having 2,500km range, thanks to V-MAX maximum strike range can significantly increase, as after reaching maximum range the glider will continue its flight further independently.
V-MAX development began back in 2019, and already in 2023 using American launch vehicle, first test was conducted during which glider showed its extraordinary maneuverability at superhigh speeds.
However, last year it became known France abandoned U.S. assistance in developing and testing its glider, with next test flight to be conducted already on French launch vehicle, which supposedly should have been ready by last year end.
However, despite V-MAX already existing and conducting its first test flight, this new 2,500km-range ballistic missile will be ready far from soon. It is announced that missile research for which €1.1 billion is allocated will begin already this year, with it to appear only by late 2030s.
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