Designed beginning in 2008, the French F21 Artemis heavy torpedo is under production by the Naval Group (formerly DCNS) at the Bertaud Castle (Gassin) torpedo factory which dates back to 1912.
Designed to replace the old F17 which has been in service since the 1980s, the F21 carries a 440-pound warhead at 50+ knots and can be either wire-guided or active/passive acoustic when hunting for targets. It is an all-Western European program, with subcontractors including Thales and Atlas Elektronik, so it has a solid pedigree.
Going past validation shots in 2015-2018 before IOC, the F21 hasn’t been seen at work much.
Well, that is until earlier this month when a war shot F21 sliced the Type A69 aviso ex-Premier-Maitre L’Her (F 792) in two, sending each separately to the bottom of the Bay of Biscay on 14 December. The shot came from an unidentified French hunter-killer.
The 4-minute 4K video release:
The F21 equips not only the Republic’s 10 boats (four Le Triomphant class SSBNs and six Suffren and Rubis class SSNs) but has also been exported to Brazil to equip that nation’s advanced Scorpene-class SSKs. Other current and future Scorpene operators, including Chile, India, and Malaysia, may also opt for the new fish.