Naval Group Delivers Fourth Nuclear Powered Submarine to French Navy

Naval Group delivered the SSN De Grasse, the fourth of six nuclear-powered attacks submarines to the French Navy on June 24.

Benefiting from feedback gained from the first three submarines of the program, the delivery of the SSN De Grasse comes exactly four months after the submarine’s first sea trials.

Since being rolled out of its construction hall in May 2025, the SSN De Grasse has successively completed its dockside trials, the commissioning of its nuclear boiler room in December 2025, and a four-month sea trials campaign that began on February 24, 2026.

This delivery marks an important milestone in the Barracuda program for which the first three SSNs have already entered active service (Suffren in June 2022, Duguay-Trouin in April 2024, and Tourville in July 2025).

The final two submarines of the program (Rubis and Casabianca) are currently under construction at various stages of completion, with deliveries scheduled through the end of the decade.

This series of six SSNs is part of the Barracuda program led by French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) in partnership with the the Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA)) for nuclear boilers, aims to replace the generation of Rubis-class SSNs in service within the French Navy.

Naval Group, in cooperation with its partners, is responsible for the production of this series of submarines, from design to shipbuilding, for manufacturing the main components of the nuclear boilers which are developed and produced with TechnicAtome. Naval Group is also in charge of providing logistical support and maintaining the submarines in Toulon.