France mulls keeping Charles de Gaulle carrier sailing after 2038
PARIS — France is studying whether the Charles de Gaulle nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can continue to sail beyond its envisaged retirement in 2038, which would give the country a fleet of two carriers, French Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Christophe Cluzel told lawmakers in a hearing here on Wednesday.
The French Navy plans to replace the Charles de Gaulle, the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in operation outside the United States Navy, with a future carrier to be named France Libre in 2038. As part of an upcoming major refit, France will look into whether the Charles de Gaulle can continue to operate longer, based on the state of onboard systems and the nuclear propulsion, Cluzel said.
With a single carrier, France is without one any time the Charles de Gaulle is in dock for periodic maintenance, and the issue of whether the country needs a second carrier tends to pop up whenever lawmakers question Navy brass.
One obstacle is cost, with the estimated €10 billion budget (US$11.2 billion) for the future France Libre carrier enough to fund at least ten new FDI-class frigates.
“Do we need two carriers? Two carriers allow you to maintain a standing alert from Toulon,” Cluzel told the National Assembly’s defense committee, referring to the Charles de Gaulle’s home port in southern France. “Two carriers is a political ambition, and it’s not for me to decide on its suitability.”
The admiral noted that keeping a permanent presence at sea would require having three carriers.
He said the future France Libre and the Charles de Gaulle will have two years of overlap in 2036-2038, with two aircraft-carrier crews on active duty, which the Navy chief said is necessary for a seamless transition of skills. That would be the first time the country has two carriers in service since the late 1990s, when the Navy operated the conventionally powered Foch and Clemenceau.
“The transition on a capability like this has to happen without any break, at the risk of losing skills and taking a very, very long time to rebuild them,” Cluzel said. “So from 2036 to 2038 there is a period when the Navy will again have two carriers able to be at sea simultaneously.
”France has said the France Libre will measure 310 meters and displace about 80,000 tonnes, compared to 261.5 meters and 42,000 tons for the Charles de Gaulle. The current carrier can carry an air wing of 40 aircraft, mainly the naval version of the Rafale fighter as well as two E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft and a number of helicopters.
Studies on extending the Charles de Gaulle’s service life will look at the wear on the reactor cores at the heart of the carrier’s nuclear propulsion system, and the ability to extend operations by keeping fuel on board the carrier for longer, according to Cluzel. The results are due in early 2029 and will be the deciding factor, he said.
“But these studies will also cover all of the carrier’s arteries, because the carrier is as old as its arteries, and its availability must not ultimately hinge on or be compromised by the availability of even a single auxiliary system,” Cluzel said. “So they’re truly comprehensive studies.”
France is sticking to a plan to fit the France Libre with U.S.-made electromagnetic catapults, despite U.S. President Donald Trump ordering the US Navy to revert to steam-powered catapults. Cluzel said he expects to discuss the topic in a meeting with his U.S. counterpart Adm. Daryl Caudle in Washington next week.
Electromagnetic catapults have shown “formidable reliability,” with nearly 40,000 catapult launches since the U.S. took them into service, and an availability rate of around 98%, the French admiral said. “So this is remarkable for a catapult that also brings tremendous operational added value in terms of flexibility of use, in the ability to launch heavy aircraft as well as drones.”
The French Navy chief said he doesn’t see the contract at risk, also because the U.S. already operates three nuclear-powered carriers with electromagnetic catapults and arresting gear, meaning a production line exists, and a viable maintenance, repair and overhaul program.
France is committed to limiting its dependencies, and similar to what it did for the steam-powered catapults on the Charles de Gaulle, the country will buy a “substantial” inventory of spare parts for its electromagnetic catapults right at the start of the program, to ensure it can perform repairs independently, according to Cluzel.
Cluzel said he doesn’t see a need for France to operate short-takeoff and vertical-landing aircraft, which he said bring compromises in terms of either reduced range or armament. The France Libre is intended to be a “superiority carrier,” the admiral said. “And that is exactly what a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with catapults and arresting cables provides.”With air and sea superiority now contested, “perhaps everywhere,” Cluzel said superiority carriers are now needed, with the first step of any operation to regain local air-sea superiority. “In the middle of an ocean, the only way to have air superiority is to have this capability.”
The Navy chief also discussed the new Frégate de Défense et d’Intervention, which he said “has been delivering on all its promises.” He said the new frigate built by Naval Group has been criticized by industrial competitors, but has proven to be “extremely seaworthy and stable, contrary to what you may have read.
”Cluzel called the detection capability of the FDI’s new flat-panel radar “remarkable,” with a performance “at least of the same level” as the radar on France’s air-defense frigates, despite being mounted lower above the waterline. The native integration of digital processing on the frigate brings a “significant gain” in sonar detection capability, the admiral said.
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