Quote:
Originally Posted by Kapitan
Suffren also lacks long range land attack capability and focuses more on close encounters using Exocet and torpedos.
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What. Just FYI, the Suffren can fire land-attack cruise missiles (MdCN - EDIT: you might have been thinking about the Rubis/Amethyste boats, which are indeed limited to torpedo/Exocet/mine warfare). As for detection, it's not particularly lacking from what I've seen, except for one thing, which is an internal towed array (the French tend to fix theirs directly to the hull after departure and cannot get it back inside the boat afterwards). It'll be also quite interesting to see what tactics will be developped against the F-21/Black Shark torpedoes: a fully electric silent torpedo with greater range than the ADCAP can be quite a problem for opponents.
In any case, the French submarine doctrine is a bit different from the British or US, in that SSBN have the priority in technology and funding, which is why the Triomphant class is massively more advanced and upgraded than the Rubis and was built before the Suffren. Underestimating Frog tech is something you only do long enough to regret, as the RN experienced: after all, we know that a British SSBN couldn't notice a French one (and vice-versa) in spitting range until the funniest knock-knock joke ever happened. ;-)