laststandonzombieisland

As any navy expert will concede, having just a single aircraft carrier in your fleet is essentially having a carrier in name only, as the prospect of keeping it continuously ready to deploy is a farce. A carrier strike force “in-being.” An exercise in carrier theory. A headquarters float for a naval parade.

Sure, there have been many countries that tried the single-carrier concept during the Cold War —Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Thailand, the Netherlands —but they all decided that the money would be better spent on more escorts, submarines, and perhaps an LPH/LPD or two.

The juice just wasn’t worth the squeeze. At best, a sole carrier allowed them to go to sea for a few week-long workups one year and a short 4-6 month deployment the next, then have to go totally offline for most of a year every six or seven years for refit and refurbishment in a pretty big dry dock that they may not have. Then there is the problem of keeping a carrier air wing operational, sans carrier.

A few other navies briefly operated two (even conceptually three) carriers then downshifted to a single flattop due to budgetary reasons (Canada and Australia), but, as witnessed by the Royal Navy’s ups and downs when it comes to keeping two-three CV/CVLs since the 1970s (albeit with a zero carrier gap from 2014 to 2017), the Soviet’s four 40,000-ton Kiev class (Project 1143 Krechyet) Yak-38 carriers in the 1980s, Italy’s own two-top policy since 2009, and India’s decision to operate at least two since 2013, that figure is the bare minimum to ensure that, maybe, there would be one ready when needed.

France was an early adherent to this rule, having operated 2-4 carriers almost continuously from 1932 to 1997, 65 years (with a gap from November 1942 to April 45).

Pre-WWII, they had the 12,000-ton cruiser-armed seaplane carrier Commandant Teste (which could carry 26 aircraft and had four catapults) and the small (598-foot, 22,000 t) carrier Bearn, the latter of which was really just a Treaty-era use of an incomplete Normandie-class battleship hull. Two planned 35,000-ton Joffre-class carriers never made it off the drawing board before 1940.

During WWII, the Free French picked up the U.S.-built escort carrier Dixmude (A609) (ex-HMS Biter, ex-Rio Parana) in April 1945, then soon added the 18,000-ton British Colossus-class carrier Arromanches (R95).

The French carrier force grew to four with the loan of two 15,000-ton Independence-class light carriers in the early 1950s: Bois Belleau (R97) (ex-USS Belleau Wood) and La Fayette (R96) (ex-USS Langley), and would operate through 1960.

By 1961, the first of two 32,000-ton French-built Clemenceau-class CATOBAR carriers, Clemenceau (R98) and Foch (R99), entered service, while a larger 45,000-ton CV, Verdun, was only canceled later. From 1963, when Foch entered the fleet through 1974 when Arromanches was decommissioned and returned to the British, the French had two brand new fleet carriers and a third legacy training/commando carrier on hand.

It was only in October 1997 that the French reduced to a single carrier (something they hadn’t done since Commandant Teste joined Bearn back in 1932) when Clemenceau struck. The worn-out Foch herself was retired in November 2000, leaving France with zero carriers for six months until the 42,000-ton CVN Charles de Gaulle commissioned in May 2001.

Since then, France has been the only country in history to run a CVN other than the U.S. (even the Chinese and Russians have only operated conventionally powered flattops), which is an accomplishment. She has had several gaps in her career, leaving France sans carrier aviation, including a 15-month refit in 2007-08 (just six years after entering service) and an 18-month midlife upgrade and refit in 2017-18.

Still, she has conducted at least 11 extensive overseas deployments to the Indian Ocean/Pacific, the latest being Clemenceau 25.

Curiously, Charles de Gaulle was at sea when the latest combat in the Middle East broke out earlier this month, off Sweden, and has now been redeployed to the extended region (Cyprus), even while both British flattops (which are much newer) are sidelined for months.

So, surprisingly, Paris is moving forward with a sort of super-Charles de Gaulle as a replacement for the now 25-year-old CVN, rather than two smaller ships (ala HMS Queen Elizabeth), which arguably would be more capable of providing continuous coverage.

At least the new French carrier will be a big one. A super carrier by any post-1945 definition.

At 78,000 tons with two K22 nuclear reactors, the planned France Libre (Free France), pennant R92, is set to replace CDG in 2038ish, with the first steel plate being cut in 2031. Like CDG and the Clemenceaus, she will be CATOBAR and will be able to carry a 70-80 aircraft CVW.

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