While world conflicts are multiplying and intensifying, France and the European Union seek to strengthen their military capacities and their weight in the geopolitical balance. With its nuclear deterrence, France refuses to rehabilitate or build new bunkers, unlike some of its neighbors.
With wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, France and the European Union seek to strengthen their military capacities and their international diplomatic weight. But if some of our European neighbors look at their anti -ientomic shelters, this is not the case with France, which prefers its nuclear deterrence.
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Nuclear deterrence, the only asset of France?
A great disparity in anti -ientomic shelters of the population remains between European countries. In Switzerland, for example, the total capacity of usable bunkers can protect 100% of its population, only 4% in France. Next follow Finland (90%), Denmark (80%), Sweden (70%), or Norway (45%).
Other European countries that do not benefit from such coverage began since the start of the war in Ukraine to inventory their bunkers, and estimate their rehabilitation.
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This is the case of Germany, which launched in November 2024 in a national inventory, after Russia tested missiles capable of touching European cities. In addition to the inventory, a renovation and development plan of its anti -ientomic shelters has been put in place, as in Switzerland.
So why such immobility of the French state? “Guarantee of the survival of the nation”, French nuclear deterrence has an “exclusively defensive.” Vocation. ” France has nuclear machine launcher submarines, and burst and strategic supplies. Its nuclear head arsenal, just under 300, is the fourth largest in the world behind Russia, the United States and China.
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These missiles benefit from machine launchers to reach any location in the world. The submarines are almost undetectable and can “inflict an absolutely unacceptable damage to an opponent, a fundamental principle of deterrence”, can be read on the government site Vie-publique.fr.
“An admission of weakness”
But the latest generations of missiles, whether hypersonic or nuclear propulsion (Burevestnik 9m730, Tsirkon 3m22, etc.) are able to change their destination in flight, making any interception very complex. Can nuclear deterrence still serve in front of these missiles? Far from it, according to Karim Boukarabila, founder and CEO of Bünkl, a company specializing in the security of public and private speakers.
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In terms of nuclear missiles, “the Russians are 30 years old ahead of France,” he explains. “And in 30 years, the Russians will be again 30 years in advance. For me, nuclear deterrence had a sense of time of cold war.”
“The challenge is this ability to not be able to be stopped. However, Russia, China and other countries have demonstrated new generations of innêtable hypersonic missiles,” says the founder of Bünkl. According to him, rebuilding anti -missile bunkers “would then be an admission of weakness and a denial of part of our history because after the war, France decided, precisely thanks to its nuclear doctrine, not to depend completely on its American ally.”
In addition, how to finance a bunker project for all French people with the immense public debt of the country? And above all, on what grounds?
Karim Boukarabila notes “an increase in requests, knowing that few are transformed into orders. People wonder about the future, inquire to preserve their families … Psychological brakes persist, like that of judgment by loved ones,” he explains.
Another analysis of the company Artemis Protection, which has specialized since 2020 in the construction of prefabricated anti -disables shelters, emphasizes requests punctuated by presidential speeches.
“French anti -ientomic shelters do not resist Tsar Bomba”
“At our beginnings, we had almost no request, the aim being to offer solutions to a nuclear incident, which remains unlikely,” explains the representative of Artemis. “Since the war in Ukraine, we have gone from 40 requests per week to 40 requests per day”, a number which varies with the speeches of Emmanuel Macron.
“The concern no longer necessarily lies in the nuclear bomb, but in cyber attacks, attacks on energy infrastructure, the poisoning of a population … Nuclear war covers only part of these concerns.”
At Artemis Protection, “we have the impression that the debate on nuclear protection is inaudible in France”, and recalls that “the French anti -ientomic shelters cannot resist the Tsar Bomba, the Russian bomb.” So why not make up for this terrible delay?
For a question of profitability, according to the company Artemis, for which France could not embark on a construction plan. “Proposing a European umbrella reports much more money: the defense plan at 800 billion from Europe is moreover a plan of armaments than of civil defense,” they say.
For its part, the SGDSN, the General Secretariat of Defense and National Security, split a sober press release at our request for an interview. He recalled that “with regard to nuclear deterrence, a work to revise the entire national strategy is underway. It will confirm the central role of nuclear deterrence in the national strategy.”
