Name Saphir Laid down 1 September 1979 Homeport Toulon Construction started 1 September 1979 Length 74 m | Namesake Sapphire Commissioned 6 July 1984 Fate In active service Launched 1 September 1981 Draft 6.4 m | |
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Saphir is a first-generation nuclear attack submarine of the French Navy. She was to be named Bretagne but was renamed Saphir in 1981 before commissioning.
She is the second of the Rubis series. Between October 1989 and May 1991, she undertook a major refit which upgraded her to the level of the lead vessel in the class, Améthyste.
Service history
In September 2001, she torpedoed and sank the ex-destroyer D'Estrées expended as a target ship off Toulon.
On 6 March 2015 it was reported that in a later erased blogspot of the French Navy and Defense Ministry that during a recent training exercise off Florida Saphir, in her role as part of the "enemy" attack group, had "sunk" the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.
References
French submarine Saphir (S602) Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA