the 250 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 CEP down to less than 5m. Deployment Hadès was designed for transportation on wheeled 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 kg. Reports 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 kt. 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. 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. External links http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/france/hades.htm Bibliography CERMA Hors-série n°7 (2013) Histoire de l'artillerie nucléaire de Terre française 1959-1996 ( // ISSN 1950-3547). Post–Cold War weapons of France Nuclear artillery Ballistic missiles of France Military equipment introduced in the 1990s