Everything about Charles De Gaulle R 91 totally explained
Charles de Gaulle (R91) is the only serving
French aircraft carrier and is the
flagship of the
French Navy (
Marine Nationale). She is the tenth French aircraft carrier, the first French
nuclear-powered surface vessel, and the first nuclear-powered carrier built outside of the
United States Navy. She is named after French statesman and general
Charles de Gaulle.
The ship uses a complement of
Dassault Rafale M and
E-2C Hawkeye, as well as modern electronics and
Aster missiles. She is the second largest European carrier, after the
Admiral Kuznetsov, and arguably the most powerful European aircraft carrier, at least until the introduction of the
Franco-British future carriers. It is a
CATOBAR-type carrier that uses the same catapult system as that installed on the US
Nimitz class carriers, the 75 m C13-3 steam catapult.
Development
Construction
The carrier replaced
Foch, a conventionally powered aircraft carrier, in 2001.
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 1951. She was to be named
Richelieu in 1986 by the French president at the time,
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). On February 7th 1987, however, after a ferocious row, the name of the ship was changed to
Charles de Gaulle by the
Gaullist Prime Minister at the time,
Jacques Chirac.
Construction quickly fell behind schedule as the project was starved of funding, which was worsened by the economic recession in the early 1990s. Total costs for the vessel would top €3 billion. Work on the ship was suspended altogether on four occasions: 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1995. The ship was commissioned on May 18th 2001, five years behind the projected deadline.
Spying incident
In 1993, a group of
MI6 officers posing as engineers were discovered inspecting the vessel during its construction. It is believed that they were evaluating the method of shielding the nuclear reactors.
Trials and technical problems
Charles de Gaulle entered sea trials in 1999. These identified the need to extend the flight deck to safely operate the E-2C Hawkeye. This operation sparked negative publicity, however, as the same tests had been conducted on both
Foch and
Clemenceau when the
F-8E(FN) Crusader fighter had been introduced. The 5 million francs for the extension was 0.025% of the total budget for
Charles de Gaulle project.
On
February 28,
2000, a nuclear reactor trial triggered the combustion of additional isolation elements, producing a smoke incident.
During the night of
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 had already 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
Clemenceau and
Foch were used, limiting the maximum speed to 24 knots (44 km/h) instead of the contractual 27 knots (50 km/h). This didn't affect air operations.
On
March 5,
2001,
Charles de Gaulle went back to sea with two older propellers and sailed 25.2 knots (47 km/h) on her trials. Between July and October,
Charles de Gaulle had to be refitted once more due to abnormal noises, as loud as 100
dB, near the starboard propeller, which had rendered the aft part of the ship uninhabitable.
On
November 8,
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 on-board medical team and sent to Toulon Hospital. Both survived.
Active service
Refitting
On
September 16,
2001, the French press reported slightly higher than acceptable radioactivity levels aboard
Charles de Gaulle, thought to be caused by a faulty isolation element. It was later discovered that the radioactivity levels were normal, but that the regulations concerning acceptable radioactivity levels had changed. While the
United States was preparing its response to the
9/11 attacks 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,
Charles de Gaulle, then under repairs, was again an object of criticism, with former President
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing describing it as a "half-aircraft-carrier".
Link 16
On
October 11,
2001, the frigate
Cassard, four
AWACS aircraft and
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.
Afghanistan: Mission Héracles
On
November 21,
2001, France decided to send
Charles de Gaulle to the
Indian Ocean in support of
Operation Enduring Freedom against
Taliban-controlled
Afghanistan.
Task Force 473, with 2900 men under the command of
Contre-Amiral François Cluzel, sailed on
1 December. The task force was comprised of
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 sixteen
Super Étendards, one E-2C Hawkeye, two Rafale Ms and several helicopters. The Super Étendards carried out their first missions above Afghanistan on
19 December, executing reconnaissance and bombing missions, covering over 3,000 kilometers. Overall they carried out 140 missions, averaging 12 every day, dodging five
Stinger missiles.
On
February 18,
2002, a
Helios observation satellite spotted abnormal activities near
Gardez. The next day, after American Special Forces in the region confirmed these observations,
Charles de Gaulle launched two reconnaissance Super Étendards. On the 20th, British and US forces entered the valley and "
Operation Anaconda" began in early March.
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 on
2002-03-11, mentioning "our good ally, France, has deployed nearly one-fourth of its navy to support Operation Enduring Freedom". At this point, the French air complement had been increased to 16 Super Étendards, 6 Mirage 2000 D, 5 Rafales, and two Hawkeye AWACS. From February, the air wings of
Charles de Gaulle and
USS John C. Stennis landed on each other's decks as a means of strengthening the ties between the allies.
On
2 May,
Charles de Gaulle arrived in
Singapore for relief and returned to
Oman on 18 May.
Indian-Pakistani crisis
In June 2002, according to several reports, while
Charles de Gaulle was in the
Arabian Sea, armed Rafale fighters participated in interposition patrols near the India-Pakistan border, marking a significant point in the Rafale M's operational career and its integration with the carrier. A number of sources have speculated on the exact nature and purpose of these flights.
Rescue mission
On
9 October, the
CrossMed (Regional Operational Center for Monitoring and Rescue in Mediterranean Sea) received a distress call on the 8-meter
Babolin, whose hull was leaking.
Charles de Gaulle, on maneuvers in the region, sent a helicopter that airlifted the three-man crew, despite wind, troubled sea, and bad visibility.
Continuing operations
Charles de Gaulle participated in further actions as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2005. It returned to
Southwest Asia in May 2006 and shortly after supported coalition efforts over Afghanistan. The aircraft carrier regularly participates in the annual bilateral naval exercises between the Indian and French navies called
'Varuna'.
First Major Overhaul
Charles de Gaulle's first major overhaul began in September 2007. The highlight of this 15-month refit will be the refueling of the nuclear powerplant, a necessary step after 6 years in service, during which
Charles de Gaulle sailed the equivalent of 12 times around the world, spent 900 days at sea, and performed 19,000 catapult launches. Several improvements will also be made, including the installation of new propellers. These will allow the
Charles de Gaulle to reach its design speed of 27 knots, replacing the vintage propellers used as a stop gap since 2001. Aircraft maintenance and weapons stores will also be upgraded to allow operation of new
Rafale F3 fighters armed with
ASMP-A nuclear missiles and
SCALP EG cruise missiles, and satellite communications bandwidth will be increased tenfold. The refit will be completed in November 2008, after which an intensive work-up period is planned to bring the
Charles de Gaulle and its airgroup back to operational status.
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 standardization a necessity. In this context, there's a possibility 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
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 turbine engine.
Gallery
Image:FS CDG bridge.jpg|Command bridge
Image:FS CDG bridge2.jpg|Aviation bridge
Image:FS CDG bridge3.jpg|Command bridge
Image:FS CDG aster.jpg|Aster 15 SYLVER launchers
Image:FS CdG Optics.jpg|Landing optics
Image:FS CdG Dauphin.jpg|Dauphin rescue helicopter on the flight deck
Image:FS CdG Rafale.jpg|Rafale number 9 on the flight deck
Image:FS CdG Super Etendard.jpg|A Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard in the hangar deck
Image:FS CdG Super Hawkeye.jpg|An E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning plane on the flight deck (June 5, 2004)
Image:165217 aboard CDG.jpg|US Navy FA-18C traps aboard CDG off Virginia Capes.
Image:FA-18 launch from Charles de Gaulle.jpg|US Navy FA-18C launches from CDG off Virginia Capes.
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