France’s proposed new-generation nuclear-powered aircraft carrier should be a significant advance on the vessel it will replace and indicates Paris's determination to remain a global maritime-air power. However, as Hugo Decis and Nick Childs explain, this new project still faces many hurdles.
Signalling France’s long-term ambition to remain a global maritime-air power, Paris is aiming to introduce into service in 2038 a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (CVN) weighing up to 75,000 tonnes. President Emmanuel Macron confirmed on 8 December that this far larger replacement for the navy’s 43,000-tonne Charles de Gaulle, provisionally known as the porte-avions de nouvelle génération (PANG) or ‘new-generation aircraft carrier’, will use nuclear rather than conventional propulsion. The new carrier will be able to accommodate an air wing of at least 30 multi-role fighter aircraft, as well as airborne early-warning and control aircraft, helicopters and uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs).
How big a step forward?
Paris’s decision to opt for a ‘classic’ nuclear-powered design – essentially a linear development of its current capability on a larger scale – at a time when the challenges to operating such platforms are only growing will inevitably stimulate further debate over the utility and vulnerability of the traditional aircraft carrier. Further suggesting that France has opted for a conventional solution to its future carrier needs, the indications are that the navy’s future will likely be based on its current operating model of a fleet centred around one catapult-equipped CVN. Given that the PANG will be expected to remain in service at least until 2080, this raises the issue of ensuring flexibility in the design to accommodate future changes in technology, threats and doctrine.
No authoritative cost estimates for the PANG have been made public. However, figures up to €7 billion (US$8.54bn) have been suggested for the total cost of developing and building the ship and its systems. Even with real-cost adjustments, that would amount to a very significant premium over the price of the United Kingdom’s recently introduced Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, part of which is accounted for by the choice of propulsion. The UK ships are conventionally powered and currently lack catapults.
The option of a second aircraft carrier, with all the operational and industrial benefits this offers, also remains on the table: a decision will be made by the middle of this decade. However, it is questionable whether France can afford another carrier, having already committed to other substantial naval build programmes. The first Suffren-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, the successor to the current Rubis class, will be commissioned in the first half of 2020. By 2030, five Amiral Ronarc’h-class frigates and four Jacques Chevallier-class replenishment oilers will be delivered. Yet more significant is that the four Le Triomphant-class nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines will be replaced in the 2030s.
When introduced into service, the PANG will likely be the largest warship ever built in Europe. The parameters of the outline design suggest that it will have a larger full-load displacement than the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, which currently hold the record. As such, the PANG will likely comprise a significant element of not just France’s notional maritime power-projection capability, but also that of Europe (and the European Union).
The challenges ahead
The ambition of the PANG project is matched by the many hurdles it may face. To develop, build and introduce into service a new nuclear-powered aircraft-carrier design in just under two decades would be demanding even for the United States, which has experienced teething troubles with its own new-design carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford. Among the components of the PANG will be US-supplied electromagnetic catapults, rather than the steam catapults of the Charles de Gaulle. Electromagnetic catapults have been part of the Ford’s problems, but they will be a significantly more mature technology by the time the new French carrier goes to sea. This approach should help the French navy retain a high degree of commonality with the US Navy in its carrier operations.
The PANG could initially host current-generation Rafale M fighters but will chiefly be designed to carry an air group including Next Generation Fighters (NGFs). The NGF project is led by France, with Germany and Spain as partners within the wider Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme. The FCAS programme includes both crewed NGFs and a range of UAVs that will also be part of the PANG’s air wing. The PANG and the NGF are scheduled to be introduced in 2038 and 2040 respectively. Coordinating the two will add another layer of complexity to already demanding projects.
With the announcement that the PANG will remain nuclear powered, along with the retention of a classic approach to the aircraft carrier, France has made clear the scale of its naval ambition for the better part of this century. Delivering on these aims will be a formidable challenge, but should they be met, the capability that France could bring to bear will be considerable.
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