France: to two new aircraft carriers to replace the Charles de Gaulle?

It was the last day this Thursday, June 1 of the debates in the National Assembly on the draft military programming law for the period 2024-2030. If the launch of a new aircraft carrier to replace the Charles de Gaulle is recorded, the deputies have nevertheless proposed an amendment to launch studies to evaluate the possibility of building a second.

The aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle, March 7, 2019 (Illustration image). Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters

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Aircraft carriers are like gendarmes they go in pairs," joked President Jacques Chirac. A joke to remind us that the maintenance periods of these ships are so long that it takes two to ensure permanence at sea. The French Navy has not known this two-carrier format for four decades.

Only, for budgetary reasons, the Navy had to settle for the Charles de Gaulle alone. But since the first plate of the new generation aircraft carrier will be assembled in three years, MEPs would like to know how much a second one would cost.

Because it is now that we must think about it points out the deputy of the 2nd constituency of Finistère (Brest), Jean-Charles Larsonneur, author of the amendment. "This is a strong signal that the National Assembly wanted to send both to the executive, but also to the rest of the world, to say that we have an ambition, in an increasingly degraded strategic context, and to say: 'Basically, let's think, a second aircraft carrier, it costs about half as much as one', he explains to the microphone of Franck Alexandre. And that is what is at stake in this amendment, which opens up the possibility of giving ourselves the choice to do so in a few years' time. Because there is basically a deadline, around 2028 – 2030, where, if we do not follow up on a second aircraft carrier, a sistership, as they say, it will be too late to do so, and that is not the issue. The challenge is that there are also some economies of scale.

Economies of scale could reach 30-40% of the total cost of an aircraft carrier. It remains to be seen what the senators who will now examine the military programming law will say.

► Read also: New aircraft carrier: "Everyone has understood the value of this tool"

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