Hades IRBM (France)

[Hydroman]

Asked if anyone else got their hands on the missile, the General stated, "I never laid a hand on IRBM.

 

[Archibald]

Many sources (english wikipedia included) says that Hades was to have non-nuclear warheads: chemical or conventional explosives. AFAIK this is completely wrong, Hades was 100% nuclear and nothing else (unlike Scud or Iskander, for example). Just like Pluton before it.

 

[dan_inbox]

Yes indeed, Hadès was always nuclear.
Its concept started as "nucléaire tactique", to be controlled by the 1ere Armée (on FRG soil),
then was changed to "pré-stratégique" (last warning before ICBM armageddon), operated by newly created "Force Hadès" from within France under direct control from Paris.

 

[Archibald]

An antiquated but interesting Hades website.
https://artillerie-asso-fr.translat...che=hades&_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=fr

 

[Archibald]

Yes indeed, Hadès was always nuclear.
Its concept started as "nucléaire tactique", to be controlled by the 1ere Armée (on FRG soil),
then was changed to "pré-stratégique" (last warning before ICBM armageddon), operated by newly created "Force Hadès" from within France under direct control from Paris.

I think the confusion comes from a 1993 proposal for non-nuclear, european Hades missiles as a potent non-nuclear deterrent. Sounds familiar ? Ukraine, France and UK are developping that kind of missiles... so the concept made sense, it was just 30 years too early - for Europe. Of course outside Europe Scud was already in that place.

 

[zjz]

HADES archived report from 1997/1998 ......

https://www.forecastinternational.com/archive/disp_pdf.cfm?ARC_ID=1078