A Very French New Year in the Indian Ocean
The French Carrier Strike Group arrived in Goa, India two days ago, after celebrating the New Year’s “haze gray and underway.”
Bonne année à tous ! BRF jacques Chevallier and carrier Charles de Gaulle (R 91) New Year’s 2025
Via the Western Naval Command, Indian Navy, the French Charles de Gaulle Strike Group is calling at Goa from 03-09 January, a historical port call in the former Portuguese colony, while on its “Clemenceau 25” deployment.
Provence
BRF Jacques Chevallier and an unknown Suffren at Goa
The force will join Indian navy ships and will take part in the 42nd annual Varuna bilateral exercise. Importantly to both Dehli and Paris, the two countries have $10 billion in Navy spending, including Rafale jets and Scorpene submarines, in its final stages.
After leaving Indian waters, the French carrier group then plans to make calls at French territories in the Indo-Pacific and participate in exercise Laperouse and Pacific Stellar.
The force, which left Toulon in early December, besides De Gaulle and her 30-aircraft Rafael M/E-3C Hawkeye/NH90 Caiman air group, includes the Horizon class AAW frigate Forbin (D620), Aquitaine-class ASW frigates Alsace (D 656) and Provence (D 652), fleet oiler Jacques Chevallier (A725), and an unidentified Suffren-class SSN. The Italian Navy frigate Virginio Fasan (F591) also sailed with the force.
Besides passing safely through the very unsafe Red Sea right now, the group has already shown some interesting capabilities including passing small packages from deck to deck while underway via drone, testing out unmanned vertrep.
They have also conducted an underway CONSOL fuel transfer between Jacques Chevallier and a merchant tanker, the American-flagged MSC-chartered MT Stena Polaris (T-AOT 5563), another first for the French fleet.
