A Rare Glimpse Aboard One Of France’s Silent But Deadly Nuclear Submarines

It’s an abrupt shock to the ears, and it causes the eyes to widen, like a newborn who is hearing for the first time. The sound of shrimp resonates within the helmet, like a concert of a thousand castanets. On the computer screen, the latest-generation sonar paints green lines that look like tangled hair.

There are other sounds too, underwater echoes that are at once strange and curiously familiar, like footsteps on the wet floor of a bathroom. This time it’s a sperm whale. Is it 10, 20 or 30 kilometers away? During the night shift on the bridge of the submarine, no one seems to notice. The animal is not a threat.

Off the coast of the French city of Brest, the French Navy begins its patrol with one of its four ballistic missile submarines, also known as SSBNs. The vessel, equipped with ballistic missiles, will patrol for 70 days. No one knows its route except the commander. “I’ll dissolve into the ocean,” he says. For all intents and purposes, the boat will indeed disappear. It is designed in such a way that the noise of the crew onboard is less than that of the ocean. Law prohibits identifying the people engaged in the patrol.

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