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Safran Secures Inertial Navigation Contracts for French Nuclear Deterrence
Safran Electronics & Defense has been selected for three inertial-navigation programmes supporting France's nuclear deterrent, covering next-generation submarines, M51 missiles and Rafale fighters. Its hemispherical resonator gyroscope technology will equip the global navigation system for third-generation ballistic-missile submarines, enabling prolonged navigation and missile initialization without satellite updates. The M51.4 missile's new CI4 inertial unit will use HRG Dual Core technology in a more compact configuration. The same technology is planned for most Rafales from the fifth production batch at F4 standard, while carrier-based navigation equipment provides an alignment reference before aircraft missions at sea.