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France to scrap

land-based

N-missiles

SAINT-CHRISTOL: France will decommission its land-based strategic nuclear missiles in September, a senior military official has said.

The move will leave France's nuclear strike force relying on Rafale fighter-bombers and submarine-launched missiles.

The 18 S3D missiles, based at Plateau d'Albion in the southeast of the country, were due to be scrapped in a review of defence plans.

"As from mid-September, Plateau d'Albion will no longer be part of nuclear planning," General Claude Bigot, commander of the First Group of Strategic Missiles, told Reuters.

President Jacques Chirac announced earlier this year that the 25-year-old nuclear base at Plateau d'Albion, seen as vulnerable, would be closed down and the land-based strategic missiles would be scrapped.

Short-range Hades nuclear missiles will be dismantled.-Reuter