Yeah, I just asked around and was confirmed (as well as confirmed that it isn't in any way confidential, the whole process being done in a visible way outside the port) that the towed array on the French SSN and SSBN are just clipped on and dropped when in proximity of the home base. Simple, fail-safe system that reduces the risks of technical failures. Plus, neither the SSBN (for obvious reasons) nor the SSN are sprinters, so less situations where they'd need to reel the array in to avoid breaking it.
For Suffren, I wonder (personal guess, I'm definitely
not going to ask anything about it) whether it could be possible to shape the pump-jet in a way that would allow storage of the TA there, or maybe on the sides.
Now, here's on a specialized blog some interesting information (in French):
https://lefauteuildecolbert.blogspot...ositif-de.html
One of the SSBN,
Le Tonnant experimented a towed array retrieval system, but the nature of the mission of the boomer led to the conclusion that it wasn't really worth it. In a recent book about French SSN, there's a picture of early plans that involves a deployment system:
Though, as you can very likely guess, that image isn't in any way representative of the actual submarine (no pump-jet, the screw being shown - which immediately excludes this picture from being about the real thing - and of course the presence of an array support near the control bars which isn't in the boat inaugurated a few days ago), but it seems to show that it was envisioned. It might also be a CGI of a Barracuda variant, like the one successfully sold to Australia or a possible candidate for the Dutch Navy.
Other option to consider: the Suffren is designed to receive an optional SF minisubmarine hangar behind the tower, so maybe there could be a modular towed array system to be mounted there too? Though the technology is mastered already.