Macron kicks off French race to build a new nuclear-powered aircraft carrierhttps://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/12/08/macron-kicks-off-french-race-to-build-a-new-nuclear-powered-aircraft-carrier/PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Dec. 8 that his country’s next aircraft-carrier will be nuclear-powered and should be operational by 2038 in time to replace the Charles de Gaulle, which entered active service in 2001.
The new aircraft carrier is expected to be the biggest warship France has ever built. Florence Parly, the armed forces minister, said in October that the ship, whatever its propulsion, would be designed to deploy the future combat aircraft system (FCAS) and today her ministry confirmed that the vessel would deploy about 30 of these aircraft “which will be bigger than the Rafales.â€
The ministry said the ship would be in the 75,000 tonne class (82,673 tons), be around 300 meters long (984 feet) and be able to sail at 27 knots (31 mph), even bigger than the second aircraft carrier that Naval Group was working on in the early 2000s until that program was shelved by the government for lack of money. In comparison, the Charles de Gaulle is 261m (856 feet) long and weighs 42,000 tonnes (46,297 tons) fully loaded. The new ship will have a crew of about 2,000, including the air group.
USN Nimitz class nuclear-powered carriers (CVN) can carry up to 90 fized and rotary wing aircraft and have a speed greater than 30 knots. The same was true of the conventionally powered Kitty Hawk class. I'm not sure I understand the value of France having a carrier that is ~20% slower and carries 35%-40% of the number of aircraft. A single Nimitz class CVN could overwhelm the air defenses of many potential targets while retaining fighters for self-protection. But a single carrier with 35%-40% of a Nimitz-class air group?
