Key Points and Summary – During 2015 war games off Florida, France’s tiny nuclear-powered Saphir—a Rubis-class attack sub—pulled off a headline-grabbing feat: it slipped through Aircraft Carrier Strike Group 12’s escorts and scored simulated kills on USS Theodore Roosevelt and several screen ships.
-The two-phase drill first teamed Saphir with U.S. forces, then cast it as the ‘red’ hunter.
-Its low acoustic signature, practiced crew and shrewd tactics exposed gaps in U.S. anti-submarine defenses and sparked post-exercise soul-searching.
-Roosevelt remains in service; Saphir was retired in 2019 ahead of France’s newer Barracuda-class. The episode endures as a cautionary tale on carrier vulnerability in high-end naval warfare.
How a French Rubis-Class Submarine (Virtually) Sank a Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier
France is the United States of America’s oldest friend and military ally, dating back to the American Revolution (though technically Morocco was officially the first nation to sign a friendship treaty with the US).
However, that friendship has often been marred by tension, from Charles de Gaulle’s snub of NATO to Jacques Chirac’s and Dominique de Villepin’s refusal to support the 2003 Iraq War.
The political sparring in Franco-American relations has sometimes carried over to simulated sparring in a wargame.
Accordingly, National Security Journal now tells the tale of the time a French Navy (Marine nationale) submarine “sank” a US Navy Nimitz-class warship.
That’s correct; a decade ago, a Rubis (“Ruby”) class submarine Saphir (“Sapphire”) defeated the $4.5B USS Theodore Roosevelt in a simulation.
Profile of the Hunted: Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) Initial History and Specifications
USS Theodore Roosevelt is the fourth ship of the Nimitz class built by Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS)—a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)—in Newport News, Virginia.
She was ordered on September 30, 1980; laid down on Halloween Day, 1981; launched on October 27, 1984; and commissioned on October 25, 1986.
Her motto is “Qui Plantavit Curabit (He who has planted will preserve),” and her unofficial nicknames are “TR” and “Big Stick” (the latter in homage to the late former President’s famous motto and foreign policy).
The mammoth flattop bears the following vitals:
Displacement: 117,200 tons
Hull length: 1,092 feet (332.8 m)
Beam Width: 252 ft (76.8 m)
Draft: 37 feet (11.3 m)
Propulsion: 2 × Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors (HEU 93.5%); 4 × steam turbines; 4 × shafts; 260,000 shp (194 MW)
Max speed: 30+ knots (56+ km/h; 35+ mph)
Crew Complement: 3,200 commissioned officers and enlisted sailors (ship’s company); 2,480 officers and enlisted (air wing)
Aircraft Carrying Capacity: 90 fixed-wing and rotary-wing assets
Armament: 2x Sea Sparrow Missiles; 2x RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles; Phalanx Close-in Weapons System (CIWS)
Profile of the Huner: Saphir (Pennant No. S602) Initial History and Specifications
The Saphir was the second ship of the second Rubis class. Six such subs have been built in total, with half of them still actively serving.
Two others were initially planned but later cancelled. The Rubis-class was France’s first generation of nuclear attack submarines (SSNs), and, as noted by GlobalSecurity.org:
The six Rubis submarines are the smallest impact nuclear submarines in the world. They are armed with four torpedo tubes, also suitable for firing Exoset [sic] cruise missiles.”
Built by Naval Group (formerly DCNS), headquartered in Paris, the Saphir was laid down on 1 September 1979, launched on 1 September 1981, and commissioned on 6 July 1984.
She had the following tech specs:
Displacement: 2,600 tons submerged
Hull length: 73.6 m (241 ft)
Beam Width: 7.6 m (25 ft)
Draft: 6.4 m (21 ft)
Propulsion: Pressurized water K48 nuclear reactor (48 MW (64,000 hp)), LEU 7%; 2x turbo-alternators; 1 electric motor (7 MW (9,400 hp)); one propeller; 1x diesel-alternator SEMT Pielstick 8 PA 4V 185 SM; 1x auxiliary engine, 5 MW (6,700 hp).
Max Speed (submerged): In excess of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph)
Test Depth: somewhere in excess of 300 m (980 ft)
Crew Complement: 10 commissioned officers, 52 warrant officers, eight petty officers
Armament: 14 of the aforementioned Exocet antiship missiles or 533 mm (21-inch) torpedoes
The Incident
Okay, so, when, where, why, and how the heck did it happen? (We already covered the “who” and the “what.”) The when and the where were circa March 6, 2015, somewhere off the coast of Florida.
At the time, the Saphir was participating in a war game with U.S. Carrier Strike Group 12 (CSG-12).
USS Theodore Roosevelt was the queen bee (so to speak) of that Strike Group, as well as several Ticonderoga-class cruisers, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and one Los Angeles-class SSN.
The exercises took place off the coast of Florida and reportedly featured two distinct phases. In the first phase, the Saphir was integrated into the US Navy fleet to locate an enemy submarine. In the second phase, it was paired with USN warplanes and given the assignment of locating and destroying the “Big Stick.”
As our dear readers have probably guessed by now, it was the second phrase wherein the USN ended up with a proverbial egg on its face, concurrent with the Marine nationale earning major bragging rights.
Therein, Saphir was able to slip past opposing vessels undetected and virtually sink the Theodore Roosevelt, as well as four escort ships from CSG-12.
The war game’s results were so embarrassing for the U.S. Navy that information about the Saphir’s victory was scrubbed from the internet.
The USN launched an investigation to determine what had happened, and the results suggested a shortcoming in the Navy’s anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities.
NOTE: For the record, the USN aircraft carrier to be sunk in real-life by an enemy submarine was the USS Block Island (CVE-21/AVG-21/ACV-21), sunk on May 29, 1944, by the Nazi German Kriegsmarine U-549; she was the only American carrier to be sunk in the Atlantic Theatre of WWII.
The last carrier of any kind to be sunk by an adversary’s sub was the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) carrier Unryu, sunk by the USS Redfish (SS-395) on December 19, 1944.
Where Are They Now?
Despite being “killed” in that simulation, TR remains “alive,” i.e., in active service today, homeported at Naval Air Station (NAS) North Island, San Diego, California. (Somewhat akin to the original TR surviving getting shot by John Schrank and even going on to finish his speech?)
Meanwhile, Saphir was decommissioned in July 2019, making her the first Rubis-class submarine to be decommissioned; she is set to be replaced by the upcoming Barracuda-class submarine.
So then, despite the embarrassment of getting (virtually) sunk by the Saphir, the crew of the TR can still paraphrase a classic Elton John song by declaring that “I’m Still Sailing.”
About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He is also the author of the newly published book “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series.”
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