1st Strategic Missile Group (France)

The 1st Strategic Missiles Groupment (1er Groupement de Missiles Stratégiques, 1er GMS) is a former unit of the Strategic Air Forces of the French Air Force.

History
The 1st SMG was formed in September 1968 as the land component of the French nuclear triad (together with the Navy's Redoutable-class ballistic nuclear submarines and the Air Force's fleet of Dassault Mirage IV nuclear bombers). The 1st SMG was an army unit armed with 18 S2 strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. It was based on the Plateau d'Albion in the southeast of France. The group reached operational readiness with its S2 missiles on August 2, 1971. The 18 missiles were split in two batteries (of 9 silos each), officially called "firing units" (unités de tir), formed respectively in 1970 and in 1972. The first battery was taken off duty in April 1978 in anticipation of the replacement of the S2s with the new S3 ballistic missiles and in the end of that year the modernization of the infrastructure for the fielding of the new system commenced. The battery received its first S3 missile on May 23, 1980 (a three-month delay from the timetable set in 1973) and it reached operational readiness on June 1. The two batteries formed the Firing Squadron 01.200 "Luberon" (l'Escadron de Tir (ET) 01.200 "Luberon") - the operational unit of the French Army's Strategic Missile Brigade 05.200 (Brigade de Missiles Stratégiques (BMS) 05.200), formed in May of 1968. The "Luberon" Firing Squadron changed its designation from 01.200 to 02.394 in 1981. In 1985, the land-based ballistic missile component was transferred from the French Army to the French Air Force, thus in June of that year the Strategic Missile Brigade 05.200 became the 95th Strategic Missile Wing (95e Escadre de Missiles Stratégiques (EMS 00.095)), the Firing Squadron 02.394 "Luberon" became its Strategic Missile Squadron 01.095 (Escadron de Missile Stratégique (EMS) 01.095) and the army base became Air Base 200 Apt-Saint-Christol, as an operational air force installation. The base was protected by the Protection Squadron 21.200 (l'Escadron de protection (EP) 21.200, four paratrooper companies and additional support units including horse-mounted and working dog platoons, formed in 1968, split in 1978 into two separate squadrons), a dedicated missile air defence unit armed with Crotale SAMs, a dedicated NBC defence unit and the 04.067 Durance Helicopter Squadron (l'Escadron d'hélicoptères (EH) 04.067 Durance) providing perimeter security to the base. With the armed forces reduction in Europe after the end of the Cold War and the rapid technological advancements in guided weapon systems, the base's vulnerability increased. As a result, plans for the replacement of the S3 with a land version of the Navy's M5 strategic nuclear ballistic missile system were deemed impractical by the French government. On February 22, 1996 the French President Jacques Chirac announced that the S3 missiles would be dismantled, and the Apt-Saint-Christol air base would be closed.

On August 31, 1998 the 1st Strategic Missile Group and the 04.067 Durance Helicopter Squadron were disbanded with the dismantling of the S3 missiles finished the following year.

Bases

 * Aerial Base 200 Apt-Saint-Christol

Equipment

 * S-2 IRBM
 * S-3 IRBM

Sources & bibliographies

 * Hervé Beaumont, Les forces aériennes stratégiques 1964-2014 (Strategic Air Forces 1964-2014), Histoire et Collections, collection Aviation (Aviation collection), 2014 ISBN 978-2352503941
 * Frédéric Lert & Hervé Beaumont, Les Forces Aériennes Stratégiques : 50 ans d’alerte nucléaire (Strategic Air Forces: 50 years of nuclear alert), Zéphyr Éditions, collection Prestige, 2015 ISBN 978-2361181680