Editing Hadès (section)

== Development ==
Hadès began with project definition in 1975 as a replacement for the Pluton system. Development started in July 1984, and flight testing started in 1988. The Hadès program planned to build 120 missiles, some with [[Nuclear weapon|nuclear]] and some with [[High explosive|HE]] warheads. Hadès was originally designed with a range of 350&nbsp;km, that would enable it to reach [[East Germany]] and [[Czechoslovakia]] if deployed from within France.<ref name=":0" /> The range requirement was later increased to 450&nbsp;km.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gueldry |first=Michel R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lazOEAAAQBAJ |title=France and European Integration: Toward a Transnational Polity? |date=2001-05-30 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-0-313-00269-4 |pages=156 |language=en}}</ref> The missile was carried horizontally, erected by the truck itself, and launched immediately. The light weight of the missile made it easy to deploy even on difficult zones, and its great range made it usable for limited strategic aims, though not to destroy Soviet cities and missile silos.
In 1991, due to the changing situation in Europe and to the German opposition to the program (which was openly designed to strike East Germany), restrictions were decided upon so as not to deploy the system and limit the complement to 15 mobile launching platforms and 30 missiles.

The system entered service in 1992, as a resource kept in storage in case of a serious national threat, in north-eastern France near [[Lunéville]].<ref name="bda1">{{cite news |title=la Force Hadès |url=https://artillerie.asso.fr/basart/article.php3?id_article=1897 |access-date=20 February 2024 |publisher=Base documentaire des Artilleurs}}</ref> Reports in 1993 suggested that a reversion to the 250&nbsp;km range missile, but with a hard target HE penetration warhead and a [[GPS]] mid-course updating of the [[inertial navigation system]], would provide an accurate and difficult-to-counter offensive weapon. A TV digital scene matching terminal guidance system has also been proposed, providing a [[Circular Error Probable|CEP]] down to less than 5m.

=== Deployment ===
Hadès was designed for transportation on wheeled [[Transporter erector launcher|TELs]], with tractor and trailer, each trailer carrying two missiles in containers that also act as launch boxes. The missile is reported to be 7.5m long, with a body diameter of 0.53m and a launch weight of about 1850&nbsp;kg.<ref name=gs1/>

Reports{{which|date=March 2015}} suggest that the Hadès trajectory is kept low, so that the aerodynamic control fins at the rear of the missile can alter the trajectory and range during flight as well as making evasive maneuvers during the terminal phase near the target.

=== Payload ===
The missiles would be capable of carrying either the nuclear [[TN 90]] or conventional HE warheads, the former probably having a yield of 80&nbsp;[[TNT equivalent|kt]].<ref name="gs1">{{cite news |title=Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD): Hadès |url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/france/hades.htm |publisher=GlobalSecurity.org |date=24 July 2011}}</ref>