Editing Hadès

{{Short description|French short-range ballistic missile}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox weapon
|is_missile=yes
|name=HADES
|image=
|caption=
|origin= France
|type=[[Short-range ballistic missile]] (SRBM)
|used_by=
|manufacturer=[[Aerospatiale]] (Now EADS)
|unit_cost=
|propellant=
|production_date=
|service=1991 (terminated in 1996)
|engine=Single-stage solid
|engine_power=
|weight=1,850 kg
|length=7.50 m
|height=
|diameter=0.53 m
|wingspan=
|speed=
|vehicle_range=480 km
|ceiling=
|altitude=
|filling=Single [[TN 90|TN-90]] with a variable yield up to 80&nbsp;[[TNT equivalent|kt of TNT]] nuclear warhead<br>High explosives conventional warhead
|guidance=[[Inertial guidance]] system <br>Digital terminal guidance (GPS) <br>[[DSMAC]] TV digital scene matching
|detonation=
|launch_platform=wheeled platforms composed of a tractor and a trailer with two missiles
}}

The '''Hadès''' system was a [[short-range ballistic missile|short-range ballistic]] [[tactical nuclear weapon|pre-strategic nuclear weapon]] system designed by France as a last warning before the use of strategic nuclear weapons in a prospective Soviet invasion of Western Europe. It was designed from July 1984 as a replacement for the tactical road-mobile [[Pluton (missile)|Pluton]] missile.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Laird |first1=Robbin F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AAaiDwAAQBAJ |title=The Future Of Deterrence: Nato Nuclear Forces After Inf |last2=Jacobs |first2=Betsy |date=2019-07-11 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-30163-2 |pages=80 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rummel |first1=Reinhard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EK2bDwAAQBAJ |title=The Evolution Of An International Actor: Western Europe's New Assertiveness |last2=Erdmann-Keefer |first2=Vera |date=2019-06-04 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-30120-5 |pages=129, 136 |language=en}}</ref> Initially 120 missiles were planned to be deployed.<ref name="bb1">{{cite news |last1=Barrillot |first1=Bruno |title=Audit atomique - Le coût de l’arsenal nucléaire français (1945-2010) |url=https://www.obsarm.info/spip.php?article28 |publisher=Éditions Observatoire des armements/CDRPC}}</ref>

A [[Transporter erector launcher|wheeled trailer and launcher]], each carrying two missiles in containers, was planned for deploying the Hadès. The original design had a range of 350&nbsp;km, which was later increased to 450&nbsp;km. The guidance system was an [[Inertial navigation system|inertial platform]] which could be programmed to execute evasive maneuvers before hitting the target. A version designed to hit hardened underground targets also had a final guidance system which used a [[Global Positioning System|GPS-based]] digital system, resulting in a [[Circular error probable|Circular Error Probable]] of only 5 m, compared to a CEP of 100 m for the standard version.

== 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>

==Implementation==
The program completed development in 1992, with the first flight test taking place in 1988. It was planned that Hadès would enter service in 1992, and that only 30 missiles on 15 TEL vehicles would be built instead of the original plan to build 120 missiles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kolodziej |first=Edward A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xPj_AwAAQBAJ |title=Making and Marketing Arms: The French Experience and Its Implications for the International System |date=2014-07-14 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5877-4 |pages=79 |language=en}}</ref> In 1991 the [[French Government]] announced that the Hadès missiles would not be deployed, but kept in storage, and the programme was terminated in 1992. However, 20 to 25 missiles were available in a national emergency with their mobile TEL vehicles, and were all located at Lunéville.

==Decommissioning==
On 23 February 1996 the announcement by [[Jacques Chirac]], the [[President of France]], on the new format for French nuclear forces called for dismantling of Hadès missiles. On 23 June 1997 the last of the Hadès missiles was destroyed.<ref name="fas1">{{cite news |title=Hades |url=https://nuke.fas.org/guide/france/theater/hades.htm |access-date=20 February 2024 |publisher=Federation of Atomic Scientists}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}
===Bibliography===
* CERMA Hors-série n°7 (2013) ''Histoire de l'artillerie nucléaire de Terre française 1959-1996'' ({{ISBN|2-901418-43-0}} // ISSN 1950-3547).

{{French nuclear missiles}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hades (missile)}}
[[Category:Post–Cold War weapons of France]]
[[Category:Nuclear artillery]]
[[Category:Ballistic missiles of France]]
[[Category:Military equipment introduced in the 1990s]]
[[Category:Short-range ballistic missiles|Hadès ]]
[[Category:Nuclear missiles of France]]