May 17, 2008

Missilethreat.com

The greatest strategic threat to the United States is an attack by one or more ballistic missiles armed with nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction. Today, the United States remains completely vulnerable to this form of attack.

Missilethreat.com is dedicated to explaining this threat, and the urgent need for robust and layered missile defenses. Systems based on land, sea, air, and in space which are capable of intercepting a missile during any phase of its flight are necessary to provide for the common defense.

Home :: Missiles of the World

Print This

M-20

Country:  France
Class:  SLBM
Basing:  Submarine-launched
Length:  10.70 m
Diameter:  1.50 m
Launch Weight:  20 kg
Payload:  Single warhead
Warhead:  Nuclear 1.2 MT
Propulsion:  2-stage solid
Range:  3000 km
Status:  Obsolete
In Service:  1977-1991

Details

The M-20 was an intermediate-range, submarine-based, solid-propellant ballistic missile. It was the third member of France's MSBS (Mer-Sol-Balistique-Stratégique) sea-launched nuclear deterrent force, replacing the earlier M-2 and the original M-1 design. The M-20s were originally deployed in sets of 16 missiles on nuclear submarines.

 

Under Charles de Gaulle, France pursued an alternate nuclear program to NATO, the goal of which was to function autonomously and provide France with the ability to escalate conflicts quickly. The M-20 was designed as the core of the sea-based French nuclear force. With a large 1.2 MT warhead, the M-20 was a strategic weapon meant for use against civilian population centers. Its low accuracy prevented it from being used against hardened missile targets. This restricted it to a response function to be deployed following an attack.

 

The main advantage of the M-20 was that its submarine had the ability to penetrate territorial waters and strike targets deep within the hostile country. Given the distance of France from the US, China, and Russia, this was the only option to allow for strikes against key population centers until the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Due to the fact that it was based on a submarine, the M-20 could be kept hidden from a preemptive strike and reach most key targets, making it an ideal deterrent weapon.

 

The M-20 was 10.7 m long, 1.5 m in diameter, and weighed 20,000 kg. It used a two-stage solid propellant engine and had a range of 3,000 km (1,864 miles). Its inertial guidance system gave it an accuracy of 1,000 m CEP. The M-20 carried a single separating warhead with penetration aids to increase its ability to penetrate anti-missile defenses. It was equipped with a 1.2 MT yield TN-60 nuclear warhead.(1)

 

The M-20 system entered service in France in 1977 and one hundred missiles were produced. In 1985, the new M-4 missile entered service, and in 1991 the M-20 ceased operational deployment.(2)

 

Footnotes

  1. Duncan Lennox, ed., Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems 46 (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, January 2007), 551; GlobalSecurity.org, “M-20,” available at http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/france/m-20.htm, accessed on 12 May 2005.
  2. Duncan Lennox, ed., Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems 46 (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, January 2007), 43-44; Joseph Cirincione, “The Declining Ballistic Missile Threat, 2005,” Carnegie Policy Outlook, February 2005, 6; GlobalSecurity.org, “M-20.” 

Home :: Missiles of the World

 

Powered by eResources.com