S2 (missile)

The S2 was the first deployed French land-based strategic missile, a two-stage, solid-propellant medium-range ballistic missile carrying a single nuclear warhead of 120 kilotonnes. In French it was called a Sol-Sol Balistique Stratégique, or SSBS, meaning ground-ground strategic ballistic missile. It was deployed in 1971 as the main land-based component of the French nuclear deterrent, the force de dissuasion, which rounded out the French strategic nuclear triad alongside air and submarine forces. Two groups totalling 18 S2 missile silos were deployed at the Apt-Saint-Christol airbase on the Plateau d'Albion in the Vaucluse region. The S2 was replaced by the S3 in the early 1980s, and its 18 silos were upgraded to the S3 standard.