''Casabianca'' was a nuclear

attack submarine An attack submarine or hunter-killer submarine is a submarine specifically designed for the purpose of attacking and sinking other submarines, surface combatants, and merchant vessels. In the Soviet Navy, Soviet and Russian Navy, Russian navies ...

of the

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

. Laid down in 1981, she was launched in 1984 and commissioned in 1987. She was withdrawn from service in September 2023. Unlike her five

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

s, ''Casabianca'' was not named after a precious stone; she was named after the of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The boat was the third in the . Between 1993 and June 1994, the boat undertook a major refitting which upgraded the boat to the level of ''Améthyste'', arming the latter for anti-submarine as well as anti-surface ship warfare. The boat's underwater endurance is 60 days, dictated by food supplies. The boat was designed to operate at seas 220 days per year, and was thus staffed by two crews that replaced each other from one patrol or exercise to the next. ''Casabianca''s operational highlights include being the first French submarine to visit the naval base at

Severomorsk Severomorsk (), known as Vayenga () until 18 April 1951, is a closed city, closed types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. Severomorsk is the main administrative base of the Russian Northern Fleet. The town is sit ...

, home of the

Russian Northern Fleet The Northern Fleet (, ''Severnyy flot'') is the fleet of the Russian Navy in the Arctic. According to the Russian ministry of defence: "The Northern Fleet dates its history back to a squadron created in 1733 to protect the territories of the ...

, in 2003; and patrols in the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean as part of the fleet surrounding the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

, such as in 2007. During the ''Péan'' inter-allied maneuvers of 1998, ''Casabianca'' managed to "sink" and her escort cruiser during a simulated attack. On 21 August 2023 the submarine departed Toulon for the final time. She arrived in

Cherbourg Cherbourg is a former Communes of France, commune and Subprefectures in France, subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French departments of France, department of Manche. It was merged into the com ...

on 1 September to prepare for decommissioning.

Notes and references

External links

* Rubis-class submarines Ships built in France Cold War submarines of France Submarines of France 1984 ships {{Submarine-stub

See also

Notes and references

External links