French missile test fails as M51 self-destroys over sea

Europe Online, By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online , 5 May 2013      

Paris (dpa) - A French ballistic missile mysteriously self-destroyed during a test-fire Sunday from a nuclear-powered missile submarine off the coast of Brittany, the Defence Ministry said, admitting to "a failure."

A picture taken in November
2006 shows an unarmed missile,
fired over the Bay of Biscay
(AFP/File, Pascal Saura)

The M51 missile was not carrying a nuclear warhead.

"The missile self-destroyed during the first phase of propulsion," the captain of the ship, Lionel Delort, told a press conference in the town of Brest.

"It‘s a failure, the reasons for which will be determined by an investigation," he said.

The test was carried out from Le Vigilant submarine, in the Baie d‘Audierne.

A resident of the area told France 3 television she head a loud noise above the sea.

"I saw white smoke in the sky and huge pieces of debris falling into the sea. At first I thought it was a plane crashing into the ocean," the woman, identified as Francoise, told the station.

Defence sources said "it left the submarine without any problem but then destroyed within the first minute."

The M51 was first deployed in 2010. Each missile can carry six to 10 independently targetable thermonuclear warheads over a range of 8,000-10,000 kilometres.

In 1996, a test fire of an M45 - the percursor to the M51 - similarly failed when the missile exploded over the sea, defence sources said. "The cause of that problem was found and resolved," the sources added. dpa cfb ar Author: Clare Byrne

A picture taken on July 13, 2007 shows "Le Vigilant" 

nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (Pool/AFP/File,

Francois Mori)

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French M51 ballistic missile self-destructs in failed test