On December 12, 2024, the French Navy held a flag-lowering ceremony for the nuclear submarine S604 Émeraude, which served a total of 37 years, including 19 years underwater, and during its entire service life covered an impressive 1.3 million nautical miles.
The uniqueness of the situation lies in the fact that this decommissioned submarine belonged to one of the smallest classes of nuclear submarines in the world, the Rubis class, of which only two units remain, with a total submerged displacement of just 2600 tons, as reported by the ZBiAM portal.
As highlighted by Defense Express, for comparison, the diesel-electric submarines of project 636 "Varshavyanka," which the Russian Federation uses to launch "Kalibr" missiles at Ukraine, have a total submerged displacement of 3950 tons.
It should also be noted that the nuclear submarines of the Rubis project have quite modest dimensions – the hull length is only 73.6 meters and the width is 7.6 meters, which makes their dimensions comparable to those of the "Varshavyanka" class.
The crew of the Rubis-class nuclear submarines consists of 57 personnel, with an autonomy of up to 45 days, a working depth of immersion of 300 meters, an underwater speed of up to 25 knots, and armament consisting of four 533-mm torpedo tubes and 14 torpedoes or Exocet anti-ship missiles. The power plant features a CAS 48MW nuclear reactor rated at 48 MW, two turbo generators, one diesel generator, and an auxiliary electric motor.
It is evident that after the decommissioning ceremony, the nuclear submarine Émeraude (S 604) will be sent to a layup facility awaiting further disposal, as this is the only feasible option for a submarine that has served nearly 40 years and has exhausted the resources of all its components and systems.
Interestingly, in the French Navy, the remaining Rubis-class submarines include S605 Améthyste, which became the penultimate ship of this series and was commissioned in 1992, and S606 Perle, which had to be restored after a severe fire in 2020 by incorporating a "half" from another decommissioned submarine of this class; the repair process of this "Frankenstein" was separately documented on video.
It is also noteworthy that the third Rubis-class nuclear submarine was decommissioned by the French Navy after they received a new, third-generation multi-purpose submarine, SNA Tourville of the Barracuda class, in November 2024. Following this, the French fleet achieved a balance of three new multi-purpose submarines (Barracuda) and two old ones (Rubis).
Previously, we reported that the United Kingdom has as many as 20 decommissioned nuclear submarines, but the disposal of the first will not begin until 2026.