French submarine Casabianca (S603)
Casabianca was a nuclear attack submarine of the French Navy. Laid down in 1981, she was launched in 1984 and commissioned in 1987. She was withdrawn from service in September 2023. Unlike her five sister ships, Casabianca was not named after a precious stone; she was named after the of the Second World War. The boat was the third in the . Between 1993 and June 1994, the boat undertook a major refitting which upgraded the boat to the level of Améthyste, arming the latter for anti-submarine as well as anti-surface ship warfare. The boat's underwater endurance is 60 days, dictated by food supplies. The boat was designed to operate at seas 220 days per year, and was thus staffed by two crews that replaced each other from one patrol or exercise to the next. Casabiancas operational highlights include being the first French submarine to visit the naval base at Severomorsk, home of the Russian Northern Fleet, in 2003; and patrols in the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean as part of the fleet surrounding the aircraft carrier , such as in 2007. During the Péan inter-allied maneuvers of 1998, Casabianca managed to "sink" and her escort cruiser during a