French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle

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The Charles De Gaulle (R91) is the only serving French aircraft carrier and is the flagship of the French Navy (Marine Nationale). She is the first French nuclear-powered surface vessel and the tenth carrier in the history of the French Navy. She is named after the French statesman and general Charles De Gaulle.

Her complement of Dassault Rafale and E-2 Hawkeye, as well as state-of-the-art electronics and Aster missiles, give her offensive power unseen before in France. She is the second largest (after Admiral Kuznetsov) and arguably the most powerful European aircraft carrier, at least until the introduction of the Franco-British future carriers. The Charles de Gaulle is also the world's only non-American nuclear carrier.

Development

Construction

The carrier replaced the Foch conventionally powered aircraft carrier in 2001. The Clemenceau and Foch were completed in 1961 and 1963 respectively; the requirement for a replacement was identified in the mid-1970s.

The hull was laid down in April 1989 at the DCN Brest Naval shipyard. The carrier was completed in May 1994 and at 35,500 tonnes was the largest warship launched in Western Europe since the HMS Ark Royal (R09) in 1950.

She was named Richelieu in 1986 by the French president at the time, President François Mitterrand, after the famous French politician Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal and Duc de Richelieu (following a traditional name for capital ships in the French Navy, see battleship Richelieu for instance). In 1989 however, after a ferocious row, the ship was renamed to Charles De Gaulle the year after by the Gaullist Prime Minister of the time, Jacques Chirac.

Construction quickly fell behind schedule, which was worsened by the economic recession in the 1990s, when the project was starved of funding. It cost 3,33 billions $ (3 billions of Euros). On four occasions, work on the ship was suspended altogether : in 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1995. When the ship was commissioned in 2001, it had already missed the projected deadline for active service deployment by five years.

Spying incident

In 1993, a group of MI6 officers posing as engineers were discovered inspecting the vessel during its construction. It is believed they were evaluating the method of shielding the nuclear reactors.

Trials and technical problems

The Charles De Gaulle entered sea trials in 1999 which identified the need to extend the flight deck to safely operate the E-2C Hawkeye. This operation induced a bad perception in the population, though the same operation had been performed on both the Foch and the Clemenceau when F-8 Crusader aircraft had been introduced, and that the 5 million francs for the extension were 0.025% of the total budget for the Charles De Gaulle project.

On 28 February 2000, a nuclear reactor trial triggered the combustion of additional isolation elements, producing a smoke incident.

During the night of the 9 November–10 November 2000, in the Western Atlantic, en route toward Norfolk, Virginia, the port propeller broke, and the ship had to return to Toulon to replace the faulty element. The investigations that followed showed similar structural faults in the other propeller and in the spare propellers: bubbles in the one-piece copper-aluminium alloy propellers near the center. The fault was blamed on the supplier, Atlantic Industries, which since had gone bankrupt. To make matters worse, all documents relating to the design and fabrication of the propellers had been lost in a fire. As a temporary solution, the less advanced spare propellers of the Foch and the Clemenceau were used, limiting the maximum speed to 24 knots (44 km/h), instead of the contractual 27 knots (50 km/h). This did not affect air operations.

On 5 March 2001, the Charles De Gaulle went back to the sea with two older propellers, and sailed 25.2 knots (47 km/h) on her trials.

Between July and October, the Charles De Gaulle had to be refitted once more due to abnormal noises near the starboard propeller up to 100 dB, which rendered the aft part of the ship uninhabitable.

On the 18 May 2001, the Charles De Gaulle was officially commissioned, somewhat tainted with a reputation as a financial black hole.

Active Service

Refitting

On 16 September 2001, slightly higher than acceptable radioactivity level aboard the Charles De Gaulle, that was thought to be due to a faulty isolation element, were reported by the French press. However it was later found out that the radioactivity levels were normal, but that the regulations concerning acceptable radioactivity levels had changed.

While the USA were preparing their retaliation for the attack of the 11th of September 2001 in the form of "Operation Enduring Freedom", the media complained about the lack of deployable French military power. At the same time, the Defence Commission reported the maintenance of the Fleet to be substandard. In this context, the Charles De Gaulle, then under repairs, was again object of criticism, former president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing mentioning a "half-aircraft-carrier".

Link 16

On 11 October 2001, the frigate Cassard, four AWACS aircraft and the Charles De Gaulle were involved in a successful trial of the Link 16 high-bandwidth secure data network. The network allows real-time monitoring of the airspace from the South of England to the Mediterranean Sea. The collected data were also transmitted in real time to the Jean Bart through the older Link 11 system.

Gas incident

On 8 November 2001, a sailor performing a routine maintenance task lost consciousness due to a toxic gas leak. A non-commissioned officer attempted to rescue him and collapsed as well. They were immediately rescued by the onboard medical team and sent to Toulon Hospital. Both survived.

Afghanistan : Mission Héracles

On 21 November 2001, France decided to send the Charles De Gaulle to the Indian Ocean to support UN operations against Afghanistan.

Task Force 473, with 2900 men under command of Contre-Amiral François Cluzel sailed on 1 December. The task force was comprised of the nuclear aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle, frigates La Motte-Picquet, Jean de Vienne and Jean Bart, the nuclear attack submarine Rubis, the tanker Meuse and the aviso Commandant Ducuing.

Embarked air power comprised 16 Super Étendards, one E-2C Hawkeye, two Rafale and several helicopters.

On 17 December, 2001, Task Force 473 was integrated in an international force, alongside USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS John C. Stennis aeronaval groups, and the Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi. The force included over 100 French, US, Canadian, British, German, Italian, Dutch, Australian, Spanish and Japanese ships under a centralised inter-allied command in Bahrain.

Super Étendard aircraft carried out their first missions above Afghanistan on 19 December, executing reconnaissance and bombing missions, covering over 3000 kilometres. Overall they carried out 140 missions, averaging 12 every day, dodging five Stinger missiles.

On 18 February 2002, a Helios observation satellite spotted abnormal activities near Gardez. The next day, after US Special Forces in the region confirmed these observations, the Charles De Gaulle launched two reconnaissance Super Étendards. On the 20th, British and US forces entered the valley, and on 2 March, "Operation Anaconda" began.

In March, Super Étendards and six Mirage 2000 aircraft carried out airstrikes against targets claimed to be al Qaeda. A few targets suggested by US forces were denied out of fear of hitting civilians. Nevertheless, French involvement was complimented by the US President George W. Bush, mentioning "our good ally, France, who deployed a quarter of her Navy in Operation Enduring Freedom" (11 March 2002)[link]. At this point, the French air complement had been increased to 16 Super Étendards, 6 Mirage 2000 D, 5 Rafale, two KC-135 air tankers, and two Hawkeye AWACS. From February, the Charles De Gaulle and the USS John C. Stennis exchanged a few aircraft as a means of strengthening the ties between the allies.

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On 2 May, the Charles De Gaulle arrived in Singapore for a relief, and returned to Oman on 18th. At the same time, tension began to increase over the question of Iraq; Vice-Admiral François Cluzel declared before the press: "France is opposed to any military action against Iraq. Should anything of this nature be undertaken, we would be unlikely to be part of the coalition".

Rescue mission

On 9 October, the CrossMed (Regional Operational Centre for Monitoring and Rescue in Mediterranean Sea) received a distress call on the 8-metre Babolin, whose hull was leaking. The Charles De Gaulle, on manoeuvers in the region, sent a helicopter which airlifted the three-man crew, in spite of a 35-knot wind, troubled sea and bad visibility.

Continuing operations

The Charles de Gaulle participated in further actions as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2005. It returned to Southwest Asia in May 2006 and is currently supporting coalition efforts over Afghanistan.

The aircraft carrier regularly participates in the annual bilateral naval exercises between Indian and French navies [link] called 'Varuna' [link].

Integration in the future Navy

The French Navy is usually a two-carrier navy, mainly to ensure that at least one ship is operational at all times even if the other is under repair. This scheme calls for another aircraft carrier to be built.

Cost considerations have made equipment standardisation a necessity. In this context there is a possibilty of collaboration between Britain and France for future carriers. It is possible that the new ship series could be built on the British design, incorporating the recent experience with the Charles De Gaulle.

Steps have been taken to make such a scenario possible: the new carrier had to be conventionally propelled to meet the cost requirements of the Royal Navy, and while the French Navy favoured a nuclear design, French President Jacques Chirac declared at the end of 2004 that the next French carrier would use a gas engine.

See also

• List of aircraft carriers
• List of naval ship classes in service
• Future French aircraft carrier
• CVF

External link