ParisA warhead-free M51.3 landed hundreds of kilometres from any coastline.
Macron has offered European partners joint exercises under France’s deterrent as tensions with Russia rise.
The launch certified Le Vigilant after an overhaul, in an estimated 290-warhead arsenal France said in March it would expand.
“To be free, one must be feared,” President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X.
Moscow has made clear it would defend Kaliningrad with nuclear weapons, yet Paris’s statement never mentioned Russia.
How each outlet framed it
drawn from 200+ reports worldwide
- Newsweek
- cites France's 290-warhead arsenal (world's 4th-largest) and Macron's March pledge to expand nuclear weapons for first time in decades
- NDTV
- frames test within Putin's week-old warning over Kaliningrad and NATO's denial that exercises threaten Russian territory
- Vanguard
- quotes Macron's deterrence philosophy: 'to be free, one must be feared; to be feared, one must be powerful'
- The News International
- specifies M51 family minimum range ~9,000 km, notes M51.3 extended range, details France's 4 ballistic-missile submarines
Sources: Newsweek, NDTV, Vanguard, The News International