France denies nuclear sub axe plan

Claims that the French government is planning to scrap one of its four nuclear submarines and make other swingeing cuts to its military capabilities, have been dismissed as "fanciful" by defence officials.

The country's Le Parisien newspaper claims the threat to axe a nuclear sub – leaving France without the ability to maintain a continuous nuclear presence at sea – is among a series of shock proposals in the French defence white paper for 2015-19, due for publication in January next year.

The newspaper claims one proposal is to save an estimated 2.6bn euros (£1.6bn) by no longer carrying airborne nuclear warheads on Mirage 2000 and Rafale jets.

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