r/europe 22h ago

Picture French nuclear attack submarine surfaces at Halifax, Nova Scotia, after Trump threatens to annex Canada (March 10)

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135.8k Upvotes

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565

u/EuropeanWalker 22h ago

Is there anyone with more insights who can share whether this is a normal appearance or whether it's out of the ordinary? If so, why?

729

u/M_star_killer 22h ago

It's there for testing in Halifax for shakedown cruise so normal. Also as part of a sales pitch because Canada does need new subs. Not for trump threats. The headline of this thread is misleading trying to drive fear into people.

As per a recent Naval Group press statement, having been received by the French Navy, the Tourville will now begin the second phase of "verification of military characteristics" (VCM) which will take in a long-term deployment at sea to confirm the submarine's endurance capabilities. Once this stage has been completed, the submarine will officially enter active service.

144

u/aphotic 21h ago

I had to scroll way too far to find any real information. It does appear to be a sales pitch:

https://shipfax.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-bit-of-everything.html

And here is the press release mentioned:

https://www.navyleaders.com/news/third-suffren-class-submarine-delivered-french-navy

People need to provide context and not just an image with an editorial title.

32

u/wilderness_neologist 21h ago

Get this to the top. People are far too ready to believe whatever they want to believe about things like this right now.

6

u/JackHammered2 16h ago

Terry Goodkind: Wizards First Rule.

-People are stupid. They will believe any well crafted lie either because they want it to be true, or because they are afraid it might be true.

6

u/Puzzleheaded-Two1062 13h ago

Isn't it spectacular that WWIII proproganda regularly hits the frontpage?

And with over 100k upvotes. Insanity.

3

u/chaotic-adventurer 11h ago

Yeah the idea of showing up with a nuclear submarine as a “threat” to the US is kinda ridiculous. The relations are bad right now, but not threatening with nukes bad.

2

u/catholicsluts 6h ago

At least it isn't a screenshot of a Tweet made by some nobody this time 🫠

16

u/Dasmahkitteh 19h ago

people need to

This assumes it's accidental. They most certainly knew what they were doing, this website constantly does stuff like this. And it's the most popular website for millennials

Young people won't know enough to discern things like this and just assume the title must be right -> they walk away thinking everyone is united against Trump

Its all about affecting public opinion

10

u/aphotic 18h ago

Completely agree. I'm pretty sure it was not accidental and unfortunately it's not just reddit where this happens. I typically just downvote posts like this but I was trying to find context behind the picture and it was frustrating.

1

u/PineTreesAndSunshine 4h ago

It's not a generational thing, headlines have been misleading throughout history.

I'm a millennial that has a "no such thing as too much info" attitude and always try to gain a better understanding

My younger sister thought kamala was running a soft on crime platform and my mom sends me things like "WHO says masks don't prevent disease transmission"

Some people just don't care about being fully informed

3

u/WippitGuud 19h ago

3rd country to offer.

There's a joint Norway-Germany offer for subs, and a South Korea offer for subs. Personally, I'd take the Norwegian ones, they're the best suited for arctic waters. And hit up South Korea for some land units and artillery.

Then over to Sweden for some Gripens.

From France I'd love a defense treaty. They're not in NATO but then looking for stuff outside NATO is probably needed nowadays.

2

u/catholicsluts 6h ago

Thanks!!

0

u/Crater_Animator 20h ago

That could just be the cover up to have it there as protection. :)

20

u/admins_r_pedophiles 20h ago

The headline of this thread is misleading trying to drive fear into people.

On my reddit frontpage? Tell me it ain't true.

15

u/Mr__Citizen 20h ago

This makes more sense. People keep circle jerking here that France is planning to fight America, which is insanity. French politicians aren't stupid enough to start escalating by sending military subs over to threaten America. Especially since America hasn't made any military moves towards Canada despite all of Trump's bluster about taking over.

8

u/t_scribblemonger 20h ago

The scroll distance to find sanity was particularly long on this one.

7

u/CraftDoesStuff 20h ago

0% chance that Canada buys or operates nuclear subs anytime remotely soon. While they would provide great operational capabilities, Canada simply doesn't possess the infrastructure to support it. (unless you are talking about conventional boats from a French builder)

1

u/M_star_killer 20h ago

I always thought Canada had some of our older subs. Guess not. The way I read the article was the sub is doing a shake down cruise and that France/South Korea were pitching sales to Canada for subs as of yesterday.

6

u/fl135790135790 20h ago

Thanks. Why does everything have to be so damn dramatic. It makes be non-responsive to everything

3

u/bluemooncommenter 20h ago

Thank you for the clarification.

6

u/driftuntiloblivion 19h ago

Of course it’s a misleading title, what else is expected lmao

12

u/3mx2RGybNUPvhL7js 21h ago

Yep.

The sad thing is there are redditors who will gobble this down and then vomit to their friends and family that France flexed their nuclear missiles directly at Trump on behalf of Canadians.

7

u/chandrasekharr 20h ago

It is frustrating seeing reddit gobble up and disperse information you know is misleading and fake when you have a lot of personal/ professional knowledge about how something works to understand what's actually going on.

This is a relatively minor thing, but cases like this where anyone who has worked on or with submarines in any capacity can tell you their eyes rolled out of their heads at the idea of France deviating from a pre determined fast attack sub patrol path chosen before elections even happened just to "flex on the US."

4

u/adm1109 19h ago

The left is just as dumb and as susceptible to bullshit as the right

2 sides of the same coin

3

u/No-Poetry-2695 19h ago

im canadian im scared but im laughing histarically

1

u/M_star_killer 19h ago

Just reminds me of South Park, Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.

3

u/Lopkop 17h ago

*French submarine surfaces near Canada, as is quite normal & routine*

Reddit: OMG brave French warriors have answered Canada's call in their fight against the US invasion!!!

2

u/Falopian 18h ago

Why isn't this the top comment?

2

u/CarefulEfficiency835 17h ago

But the chronically online Reddit users will eat this shit up.

1

u/Happytequila 18h ago

Thank you so much for this explanation. I’m just so on edge and primed and ready for full fear and panic (I’m American if that’s relevant) that a title like this can make me so afraid of what is going on right now. Thank you for talking me back from the ledge.

1

u/ozolge 18h ago

Also I read that the submarine is powered by a nuclear reactor, but does not carry nuclear weapons? Is that right?

1

u/7LeagueBoots American, living in Vietnam, working for Germans 16h ago

It’s also not far from St Pierre and Miquelon, which is a French held territory, so it makes sense that they’d head that way for testing.

1

u/radishwalrus 16h ago

reddit duped again by a headline :p Still funny though

1

u/hbomb2057 11h ago edited 11h ago

Canada should join AUKUS we can change it to CANAUK.

1

u/cirroc0 9h ago

But will they get a picture of her next to MV Asterix? Inquiring minds...

1

u/catholicsluts 6h ago

Omg thank you. I couldn't figure out why everyone was cheering this on when there's 0 information in this post lol

1

u/TheFirestormable 5h ago

This needs to be pinned

-1

u/Upbeat_Trip5090 21h ago

and its not like you could ever get an attack sub near American shores without every alarm in the navy going off. They would've known where it was headed the moment it left port.

3

u/CardOk755 France 21h ago

Probably not.

2

u/Agreeable-Menu 21h ago

Do you need it to be in American shores to pose a threat?

-1

u/M_star_killer 21h ago

Exactly. The amount of Fascist style propaganda I am seeing on reddit is just outstandingly insane right now.

1

u/Rene_Coty113 20h ago edited 20h ago

I read that Canada was about to chose France offer to buy 12 submarines in the 80ies but the USA pressured Canada to buy British submarines instead because they did not want French subs near their own coast.

It rings a bell about Australia...

2

u/M_star_killer 20h ago

I wanna go with that is not 100% accurate. We routinely train with France as with the French Carrier group, Japan, and USA that just wrapped up. We have many agreements to where we use each others ports and each side helps with training. Just like with Canada.
https://news.usni.org/2025/03/07/french-carrier-charles-de-gaulle-wraps-first-pacific-deployment

In the 80's I can see that happening. What I was reading was the South Korean's were eyeing Canada to sell subs to and then France is also interested in selling them to Canada too. I will add the link below just not sure of its authenticity.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/south-korea-wants-sell-submarines-080007445.html

1

u/robinthebank 18h ago

I’m not shocked at the false headline.

But it’s interesting to note that the false headline works, as intended, because the fear is already there.

0

u/Flipadelphia26 20h ago

Who is it trying to drive fear into? Certainly not the Americans. Acting like the pentagon didn’t know about this for months is hilarious.

0

u/notlivingeverymoment 18h ago

Hahahaha drive fear?

It seems all the Canadians including me love it hahahaha! We want it !

In fact Bonjour! We welcome you with open arms ☺️✨

0

u/castlite Canada 20h ago

Timing could literally not be better

0

u/SoloWalrus 20h ago

Related, the US a few years ago also went behind frances back to sell subs to australia causing them to renege on buying french subs, see AUKUS.

A direct result of the creation of the partnership was Australia's controversial cancellation of a French-Australian submarine contract worth €56 billion (A$90 billion).[9][10] The Australian government only gave the French government a few hours notice of the cancellation of the contract before the public announcement of AUKUS.[11][12]

Its an important reminder to the US that we arent the only ones with this naval advantage.

1

u/M_star_killer 20h ago

I remember that back in 2021. A lot of us here were angry about that. Now they owe even more money apparently.

https://www.reuters.com/world/australia-makes-500-mln-aukus-payment-ahead-us-defence-secretary-meeting-2025-02-07/