Le Redoutable (S 611) was the lead boat of her class of ballistic missile submarines in the French Marine Nationale.
Commissioned on 1 December 1971, the boat was the first French SNLE (Sous-marin Nucléaire Lanceur d'Engins, "Device-Launching Nuclear Submarine"). Le Redoutable ("formidable" or "fearsome" in French).
Le Redoutable had a 20-year duty history, with 51 patrols of 70 days each, totalling an estimated 90,000 hours of diving and 1.27 million kilometres (790,000 mi) of distance, the equivalent of travelling 32 times around the Earth.
These 3D files are suitable for loading onto your 3D printer and printing out at any scale the printer is capable of. As designed, the model will result in a 1/96 scale submarine, measuring 52" in length and having a 4.5" beam.
All parts are designed to be under 175mm in height, suitable for printing on most hobbyist 3D printers.
Recommended print settings are 0.2mm layer height, 100% infill. No rafts or supports are necessary, though you can certainly use them, if desired. PLA+ plastic was used in my prototype build, but the builder can print in whatever material they deem best suited to their use.
If being used as an RC submarine hull, the model is designed to accept a 3" diameter watertight cylinder. If you would like to convert this to full RC operation, I do have a custom starter kit designed specifically for this boat that you can purchase here.
Upon purchase, you will be able to download the .zip file (50mb in size) with the print files and instructions contained inside. There are also dozens of high-quality reference photos included in the appropriate folder.
French Redoutable in 1:96 scale - 3D files
Builder: DCN Cherbourg Laid down: November 1964 Launched: 29 March 1967 Commissioned: 1 December 1971 Decommissioned: 1 December 1991 Homeport: Île Longue Fate: Museum ship General characteristics Class and type: Redoutable-class submarine Displacement: 8,000 tons (submerged) Length: 128 metres (420 ft) Beam: 10.6 metres (35 ft) Draught: 10 metres (33 ft) Decks: 3 Installed power: nuclear Propulsion: One GWC PAR K15 PWR, 16,000 shp Speed: over 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) Range: Essentially unlimited Complement: - 15 officers
- 120 sailors
Sensors and
processing systems:- 1 DRUA 33
- 1 DMUX 21
- 1 DSUV 61B VLF
- 1 DUUX 5
- ARUR 12 radar detector
Armament: - 16 M20 MSBS (Mer-Sol Balistique Stratégique) nuclear missiles
- four 533 mm torpedo tubes
- F-17 and L-5 torpedoes
- SM-39 Exocet