Bévéziers (S621/Q621) was an Agosta-class diesel-electric attack submarine operated by the French Navy between 1977 and 1998. Laid down in 1973, she operated in the Atlantic throughout the Cold War. After the submarine was decommissioned, she was laid up for a decade and scrapped in 2020.
Development and design In 1972, the French Navy proposed to modernize the fleet and deemphasize ballistic missile submarines. The plan, among other elements, called for 20 fleet submarines by 1985. Consequently, the loss of many French colonies reduced emphasis on French ships operating in Asia and Africa. Compared to the previous Narval-class submarines designed in the 1950s, the Agosta class incorporated two decades of improved technology, a similar displacement, and a smaller size and range.
The four Agosta-class attack submarines measured overall in length, with a beam of and a draught of . The boats displaced 1,450 tons surfaced and 1,725 tons submerged and carried a complement of 54. Propulsion was provided through a single shaft powered by two SEMT-Pielstick diesel engines and electric motors, which produced when surfaced and submerged. This machinery enabled a maximum speed of surfaced and submerged. Armament consisted of four bow-mounted torpedo tubes and 16 torpedoes carried onboard. Onboard sonars included the DUUA-2, DSUV-2, and DUUX-2.
Service history Bévéziers was second of the class to be built, and was laid down at the Cherbourg Naval Base on 17 May 1973, launched on 14 June 1975, and commissioned on 29 September 1977. By 1987, the class was retrofitted to launch SM 39 Exocet missiles out of the torpedo tubes. The four submarines formed the Atlantic Submarine Squadron () and Bévéziers operated out of Lorient for her career. The submarine was decommissioned in 1998, one year after the squadron was dissolved. Alongside her sister ship , the two submarines were stored inside the Nazi-era submarine pens in Brest between 2009 and 2020. The boats were stripped of their names, with Bévéziers redesignated Q621. In 2020, they were moved to a dry dock in the city to be broken up despite an earlier effort to preserve one of the boats as a museum ship. Efforts to dismantle the duo began in late 2020 and were complicated by the threat of asbestos and their small size, and was estimated to last 9 months.
References
External links Le sous-marin « Bévéziers » sera déconstruit à Brest : souvenirs de la vie à bord, en 1996 (The submarine "Bévéziers" will be dismantled in Brest: memories of life on board, in 1996) - a sailor's reflection of their life onboard Bévéziers