(original photo which inspired the above image HERE)
(High resolution art of the logo HERE)

Cold War Geodesy
French Nuclear Force Locations

Command & Control (C3I) Infrastructure

Jupiter Command Post [poste de commandement Jupiter (PC Jupiter)] – This 280m2 bunker is located 70 meters underneath the East Wing of the Palais de l'Élysée.

COFAS (Strategic Air Forces Operations Center) Taverny – Located in a former 1815 era Gypsium Quarry, which was turned into an underground factory by the Nazis in WWII, and then by the French into a underground bunker in 1967. Also Strategic Air Forces (FAS) HQ.

COFAS (Strategic Air Forces Operations Center) Lyon-Mont Verdun – Since 1974, has had an underground command post.

Communications Transmitter/Receivers – These (T1 and V1, etc) sites are one method by which nuclear strike orders would have been transmitted from the COFAS Hqs to the land-based missile silos themselves.

FOST (Force océanique stratégique) Bunker

• 2000 to Present, Brest Castle.

• Before 2000, in Houilles Marine Centre – which was established by the Air Ministry in 1939 to produce aircraft engines underground, taken over by the Kreigsmarine in 1940 for torpedo production, and then by the French Navy in 1944, eventually becoming the Naval Strategic Command Center (centre de commande stratégique de la Marine) from 1960-2000.

Facility Type

Facility Name

Location (Decimal)

Location (DMS)

Leadership Bunker

Jupiter Command Post

48.87004, 2.31703

48°52′12″N 2°19′01″E

Command Bunker

COFAS (Strategic Air Forces Operations Center) Air Base 921 Taverny

49.03378, 2.22877

49°02′02″N 2°13′44″E

Command Bunker

COFAS (Strategic Air Forces Operations Center) Air Base 942 Lyon-Mont Verdun

45.85056, 4.78627

45°51′02″N 4°47′11″E

Command Bunker

FOST (Force océanique stratégique) Bunker, Brest Castle

48.38103, -4.49473

48°22′52″N 4°29′41″W

Command Bunker

FOST (Force océanique stratégique) Bunker, Houilles Marine Centre “Commandant Millé”

48.91903, 2.17139

48°55′09″N 2°10′17″E

Communications Transmitter

T1

44.15788, 5.33268

44°09′28″N 5°19′58″E

Communications Transmitter

T2

44.17206, 5.28849

44°10′19″N 5°17′19″E

Communications Receiver

V1

43.94131, 5.48361

43°56′29″N 5°29′01″E

Communications Receiver

V2

44.15328, 5.40268

44°09′12″N 5°24′10″E

Air-Based Infrastructure

Commandement des Forces Aériennes Stratégiques, (CFAS)
Forces aériennes stratégiques

2010s Force

Facility Name

A/C

Location (Decimal)

Location (DMS)

Saint-Dizier-Robinson AB

20 x Rafale B

48.63583, 4.89917

48°38′09″N 4°53′57″E

Istres-Le Tubé AB

20 x Rafale B

43.52352, 4.92556

43°31′25″N 4°55′32″E

1968 Force (Near Peak of French Aviation)

62 x Mirage IV – 9 on 5 minute alert, remaining 53 within an hour divided amongst nine squadrons (EB)

91^st Bomber Wing (3 Squadrons)
93^rd Bomber Wing (3 Squadrons)
94^th Bomber Wing (3 Squadrons)

12 x C-135F Tankers – 3 on 5 minute alert, divided amongst three squadrons (ERV)

Several strike plans had been established (ranging up to 7,000 km and 8 hours of flight):

• Northern axis: the Mirage IVs took off from the nine nuclear air bases in metropolitan France , flew over the Baltic Sea and then attacked Leningrad , Moscow or Murmansk.

• Southern axis: the Mirage IVs took off from the nine nuclear air bases in metropolitan France , flew over the Mediterranean Sea and then the Bosphorus Strait to attack the Ukrainian part of the USSR ( Odessa or Sevastopol ).

• Central axis: passage through Central Europe to attack a target located in the Eastern bloc outside the USSR. This route was quickly dismissed as it involved crossing surface-to-air defenses and flying over the numerous fighter bases established in the Warsaw Pact countries .

Facility Name

Squadrons

Location (Decimal)

Location (DMS)

Air Base 118 Mont-de-Marsan

EB 1/91 "Gascogne"
ERV 4/91 "Landes"

43.91095, -0.50905

43°54′39″N 0°30′33″W

Air Base 113 Saint-Dizier-Robinson

EB 2/94 "Marne"

48.63440, 4.90196

48°38′04″N 4°54′07″E

Air Base 120 “Commandant Marzac”

EB 2/91 "Brittany"

44.53623, -1.12528

44°32′10″N 1°07′31″W

Air Base 110 Creil

EB 3/91 "Beauvaisis"

49.25352, 2.51897

49°15′13″N 2°31′08″E

Air Base 103 Cambrai-Épinoy

EB 3/93 "Sambre"

50.22166, 3.15399

50°13′18″N 3°09′14″E

Air Base 115 Orange-Caritat

EB 2/93 "Cévennes"

44.14014, 4.86403

44°08′25″N 4°51′51″E

Air Base 125 Istres-Le Tubé

EB 1/93 "Guyenne"
ERV 4/93 "Aunis"

43.52016, 4.92680

43°31′13″N 4°55′36″E

Air Base 702 Avord

EB 1/94 "Bourbonnais"
ERV 4/94 "Sologne"

47.05430, 2.63433

47°03′15″N 2°38′04″E

Air Base 116 Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur

EB 3/94 "Arbois"

47.78837, 6.35233

47°47′18″N 6°21′08″E

Sea-Based Infrastructure

Force océanique stratégique

Facility Name

Location (Decimal)

Location (DMS)

Île Longue Strategic Submarine Base

48.30230, -4.51114

48°18′08″N 4°30′40″W

Cherbourg Naval Base

49.65250, -1.63417

49°39′09″N 1°38′03″W

Land Based Missile Infrastructure
(Air Base 200 Apt-Saint-Christol)

French Designations:

ZL = Zones de Lancement
PCT = Postes de Contrôle de Tir

NOTES: Choosing a plateau as the site for the system allowed for the deep burial of the PCTs, more than 400 meters below the surface, beneath the ZLs. Located 35 kilometers apart, the two PCTs were built at the end of nearly 2-kilometer-long tunnels bored from the plateau flanks.

Access to these tunnels was via a gatehouse protected by a concrete pediment. Inside, a guard behind a one-way mirror monitored access to the underground facilities. These facilities were connected by a network of 6-mete-diameter tunnels, traversed by electric carts.

A first tunnel connected the entrance to the gatehouse to the outside in order to channel the blast of an explosion. 350 meters from the gatehouse, along this first tunnel, a second tunnel at a right angle led into the hillside in a dead end. Two hundred meters before its end, a third gallery branched off parallel to it after a right-angle bend. It was 350 meters further on, along this third gallery, that the PCT was deployed. Beyond the PCT, this same gallery also ended in a dead end some 1,600 meters further on, except that its end was connected to the surface by a 25- meter shaft , sealed with sand, which served as an emergency exit. Like an Egyptian well, the occupants would have had to, from inside, empty the sand held in the upper third of the shaft by means of a trapdoor, in order to reach the surface.

The right-angled branches and dead-end galleries would have made it possible to break the shock wave , following an explosion, propagating through the tunnels of the complex.

The PCT was deployed in a cavern 28 m long and 8 m in diameter, covered with 2m of concrete and a Faraday cage made of hermetically welded steel plates to allow the electronics to withstand an electromagnetic pulse .

In the PCT, six men provided security for two mechanics and two firing officers who worked in shifts around the clock.

Missiles deployed were:

S-2 MRBMs (1971-1984 – 120 kT warhead, 3000 km range)

S-3 IRBMs (1980-1996 – 1.2 MT warhead with penaids, 3500 km range); first 9-missile group IOC 1 Jun 1980, second group IOC 31 Dec 1982.

Centroid of All Silos: 44.05397, 5.50188
Centroid of Group 1 Silos: 44.00728, 5.52203
Centroid of Group 2 Silos:44.10066, 5.48169

Location (Decimal)

Location (DMS)

Launch Control Facility

PCT 1

43.92865, 5.48706

43°55′43″N 5°29′13″E

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 1-1

43.97539, 5.46634

43°58′31″N 5°27′59″E

2 Aug 1971

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 1-2

44.00034, 5.48740

44°00′01″N 5°29′15″E

2 Aug 1971

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 1-3

44.02901, 5.46575

44°01′44″N 5°27′57″E

2 Aug 1971

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 1-4

44.04562, 5.50666

44°02′44″N 5°30′24″E

2 Aug 1971

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 1-5

44.04142, 5.54851

44°02′29″N 5°32′55″E

2 Aug 1971

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 1-6

44.01969, 5.54042

44°01′11″N 5°32′26″E

2 Aug 1971

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 1-7

43.99362, 5.53344

43°59′37″N 5°32′00″E

2 Aug 1971

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 1-8

43.99737, 5.57947

43°59′51″N 5°34′46″E

2 Aug 1971

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 1-9

43.96304, 5.57025

43°57′47″N 5°34′13″E

2 Aug 1971

16 Sep 1996

Launch Control Facility

PCT 2

44.15961, 5.41940

44°09′35″N 5°25′10″E

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 2-1

44.13790, 5.44927

44°08′16″N 5°26′57″E

23 Apr 1972

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 2-2

44.10835, 5.43976

44°06′30″N 5°26′23″E

23 Apr 1972

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 2-3

44.06650, 5.42995

44°03′59″N 5°25′48″E

23 Apr 1972

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 2-4

44.05847, 5.46943

44°03′30″N 5°28′10″E

23 Apr 1972

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 2-5

44.08725, 5.49966

44°05′14″N 5°29′59″E

23 Apr 1972

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 2-6

44.07101, 5.53404

44°04′16″N 5°32′03″E

23 Apr 1972

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 2-7

44.10483, 5.53282

44°06′17″N 5°31′58″E

23 Apr 1972

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 2-8

44.12257, 5.49397

44°07′21″N 5°29′38″E

23 Apr 1972

16 Sep 1996

Silo

ZL 2-9

44.14899, 5.48631

44°08′56″N 5°29′11″E

23 Apr 1972

16 Sep 1996