Name Casabianca Laid down 19 September 1981 Commissioned 13 May 1987 Length 74 m Launched 22 December 1984 | Namesake Casabianca (Q183) Christened as Bourgogne In service 21 April 1987 Construction started 19 September 1981 | |
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Casabianca (ex-Bourgogne) is a first-generation nuclear attack submarine of the French Navy. She is named in honour of the famous submarine of the Free French Naval Forces Casabianca (Q183).
She is the third of the Rubis class. Between 1993 and June 1994, she undertook a major refitting which upgraded her to the level of Améthyste, arming her for anti-submarine as well as anti-surface ship warfare. Her underwater endurance is 60 days, dictated by food supplies. She is designed to operate at seas 220 days per year, and is thus staffed by two crews that relay each other from one patrol or exercise to the next.
Among Casabianca's operational highlights are its being the first French submarine to visit the naval base at Severomorsk, home of the Russian Northern Fleet, in 2003; and patrols in the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean as part of the fleet surrounding the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, such as in 2007.
During the Péan inter-allied maneuvers of 1998, Casabianca managed to "sink" USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and her Ticonderoga-class escort cruiser Anzio during a simulated attack.