ArianeGroup is a company with a fundamentally dual character, which has inherited of 50 years of continuous development of the ballistic missile programs of the French Strategic Oceanic Force and the European Ariane civil launchers programs. The implementation principles, technologies, competences and design tools are largely analogous for a ballistic missile and a space launcher. The succession since the 60’s of –alternatively- military and civil programs has made it possible to develop and maintain a French industrial sector with a high-level technology and strong added value.

In other words, ensuring a reliable, independent and competitive access to space is a major issue for Europe, for the autonomy of France in terms of strategy, based on the sustainability of French Strategic Ocean Force. In order to meet the immediate challenges of budget constraints and business competition, it is of the utmost importance to be on time and to meet the requirements of the international market by placing the new Ariane 6 European launcher on the market and continuing to prepare the future in order to keep our leadership.

This dual industrial model and the alternating development cycles precisely allow to maintain and strengthen the technological and industrial competences which are key elements for the technical credibility contributed to the deterrence weapon system M51. This system is the result of the involvement of over 6,000 engineers, technicians and artisans dedicated to this complex project. ArianeGroup is a key player of an entire sector which covers, for the deterrence business, more than 900 French industrialists, among which 140 direct suppliers and 40 prime contractors for subsystems – more than 30% are small to medium size companies and approximately 15% are intermediate size companies. The M51 activities are located on protected sites in the region of Bordeaux in Aquitaine, the site of les Mureaux in the region of Paris and on the site of the French Navy on the island of l’Ile Longue, where ArianeGroup is present on a continuous mode to ensure the integration and maintenance of the missile and contributes to the permanent availability of this weapon.

The M51 program is designed to last over 30 years, and therefore meets the evolution of operational needs based on an incremental approach which was initiated at the beginning of the years 2000 and which allows to continuously adapt the M51 weapon system to the current geopolitical context. The M51.1 version is in service since 2010 with a military payload deriving from the previous M45 weapon system. The M51.2 version, which is operational since 2016, carries the new Oceanic Nuclear Warhead (Tête Nucléaire Océanique) and has a longer range. The French Strategic Oceanic Force (Force Océanique Stratégique) therefore now carries the performance of these two versions on its submarines.

And we are also preparing the future:
Scheduled for around 2025, the aim of M51.3 is to adapt the performance of the missile to the evolution of operational needs by redesigning the third stage of the missile taking into account the payload capacity necessary for a new military charge and the management of obsolescence. The competitive trend introduced by the Ariane 6 program and an optimum use of dual competences make these ambitious economical and industrial objectives possible to achieve in the constrained public budget.

We must nevertheless pursue our efforts to continue to master the most advanced technologies from propulsion to equipment and materials so as to be able to anticipate threats and bring technological innovations to maturity, and also identify a potential technological break when maturity is reached. This requires a continued investment in the « upstream study programs » to bring up options and technical solutions so as to timely launch the development of a program – the evolution of the M51.4 weapon – and by doing so, to maintain beyond the 2035 horizon a deterrence adapted to the foreseeable evolutions of threats.
 
Lastly, the space environment, in a geopolitical context which is very unstable, is no longer fixed and is becoming a key element in the strategy of leading powers which, such as France, master all the competences of the space sector. The other great space nations (the United States, Russia and China) have made the choice to prepare new capacities (high power lasers, exo-atmospheric interceptors, etc.) which may, one day, give them the necessary means to exercise their power in space. ArianeGroup, by investing in its space competences is in a position to contribute its expertise and its technological solutions to accompany the implementation of a national and European doctrine on security in space.