Casabianca was a Rubis-class 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 She was withdrawn from service in September 2023.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 Redoutable-class submarine Casabianca of the Second World War.

Background and design

Service history
The boat was the third in the Rubis class. 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.
Casabianca's 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 Charles de Gaulle, such as in 2007.
During the Péan inter-allied maneuvers of 1998, Casabianca managed to "sink" USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and her Ticonderoga-class escort cruiser Anzio during a simulated attack.
On 21 August 2023 the submarine departed Toulon for the final time. She arrived in Cherbourg on 1 September to prepare for decommissioning.

See also
Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca
List of submarines of France

Notes and references

Citations

Sources
Couhat, Jean Labayle, ed. (1986). Combat Fleets of the World 1986/87. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-85368-860-5.
Jordan, John (1995). "France". In Chumbley, Stephen (ed.). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 95–131. ISBN 1-55750-132-7.
Saunders, Stephen, ed. (2009). Jane's Fighting Ships 2009–2010 (112 ed.). Alexandria, Virginia: Jane's Information Group Inc. ISBN 978-0-7106-2888-6.
Wertheim, Eric, ed. (2013). The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World (16th ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9-7-815911-4954-5.

External links
Media related to Casabianca (S 603) at Wikimedia Commons