France mulls keeping Charles de Gaulle carrier sailing after 2038

PARIS — France is studying whether the Charles de Gaulle nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can continue to sail beyond its envisaged retirement in 2038, which would give the country a fleet of two carriers, French Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Christophe Cluzel told lawmakers in a hearing here on Wednesday.

The French Navy plans to replace the Charles de Gaulle, the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in operation outside the United States Navy, with a future carrier to be named France Libre in 2038. As part of an upcoming major refit, France will look into whether the Charles de Gaulle can continue to operate longer, based on the state of onboard systems and the nuclear propulsion, Cluzel said.

With a single carrier, France is without one any time the Charles de Gaulle is in dock for periodic maintenance, and the issue of whether the country needs a second carrier tends to pop up whenever lawmakers question Navy brass.

One obstacle is cost, with the estimated €10 billion budget (US$11.2 billion) for the future France Libre carrier enough to fund at least ten new FDI-class frigates.

“Do we need two carriers? Two carriers allow you to maintain a standing alert from Toulon,” Cluzel told the National Assembly’s defense committee, referring to the Charles de Gaulle’s home port in southern France. “Two carriers is a political ambition, and it’s not for me to decide on its suitability.”

The admiral noted that keeping a permanent presence at sea would require having three carriers.

He said the future France Libre and the Charles de Gaulle will have two years of overlap in 2036-2038, with two aircraft-carrier crews on active duty, which the Navy chief said is necessary for a seamless transition of skills. That would be the first time the country has two carriers in service since the late 1990s, when the Navy operated the conventionally powered Foch and Clemenceau.

“The transition on a capability like this has to happen without any break, at the risk of losing skills and taking a very, very long time to rebuild them,” Cluzel said. “So from 2036 to 2038 there is a period when the Navy will again have two carriers able to be at sea simultaneously.

”France has said the France Libre will measure 310 meters and displace about 80,000 tonnes, compared to 261.5 meters and 42,000 tons for the Charles de Gaulle. The current carrier can carry an air wing of 40 aircraft , mainly the naval version of the Rafale fighter as well as two E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft and a number of helicopters.

Studies on extending the Charles de Gaulle’s service life will look at the wear on the reactor cores at the heart of the carrier’s nuclear propulsion system, and the ability to extend operations by keeping fuel on board the carrier for longer, according to Cluzel. The results are due in early 2029 and will be the deciding factor, he said.

“But these studies will also cover all of the carrier’s arteries, because the carrier is as old as its arteries, and its availability must not ultimately hinge on or be compromised by the availability of even a single auxiliary system,” Cluzel said. “So they’re truly comprehensive studies.”

France is sticking to a plan to fit the France Libre with U.S.-made electromagnetic catapults, despite U.S. President Donald Trump ordering the US Navy to revert to steam-powered catapults . Cluzel said he expects to discuss the topic in a meeting with his U.S. counterpart Adm. Daryl Caudle in Washington next week.

Electromagnetic catapults have shown “formidable reliability,” with nearly 40,000 catapult launches since the U.S. took them into service, and an availability rate of around 98%, the French admiral said. “So this is remarkable for a catapult that also brings tremendous operational added value in terms of flexibility of use, in the ability to launch heavy aircraft as well as drones.”

The French Navy chief said he doesn’t see the contract at risk, also because the U.S. already operates three nuclear-powered carriers with electromagnetic catapults and arresting gear, meaning a production line exists, and a viable maintenance, repair and overhaul program.

France is committed to limiting its dependencies, and similar to what it did for the steam-powered catapults on the Charles de Gaulle, the country will buy a “substantial” inventory of spare parts for its electromagnetic catapults right at the start of the program, to ensure it can perform repairs independently, according to Cluzel.

Cluzel said he doesn’t see a need for France to operate short-takeoff and vertical-landing aircraft, which he said bring compromises in terms of either reduced range or armament. The France Libre is intended to be a “superiority carrier,” the admiral said. “And that is exactly what a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with catapults and arresting cables provides.”With air and sea superiority now contested, “perhaps everywhere,” Cluzel said superiority carriers are now needed, with the first step of any operation to regain local air-sea superiority. “In the middle of an ocean, the only way to have air superiority is to have this capability.”

The Navy chief also discussed the new Frégate de Défense et d’Intervention, which he said “has been delivering on all its promises.” He said the new frigate built by Naval Group has been criticized by industrial competitors, but has proven to be “extremely seaworthy and stable, contrary to what you may have read.

”Cluzel called the detection capability of the FDI’s new flat-panel radar “remarkable,” with a performance “at least of the same level” as the radar on France’s air-defense frigates, despite being mounted lower above the waterline. The native integration of digital processing on the frigate brings a “significant gain” in sonar detection capability, the admiral said.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——法国海军参谋长克里斯托夫·克吕泽尔海军上将周三在巴黎举行的一次听证会上告​​诉议员们，法国正在研究“戴高乐”号核动力航空母舰是否可以在预计于 2038 年退役后继续航行，这将使法国拥有两艘航母。

法国海军计划在2038年用一艘名为“自由法兰西”号的未来航母替换“戴高乐”号——目前除美国海军外唯一一艘仍在服役的核动力航空母舰。克鲁泽尔表示，作为即将进行的大规模改装的一部分，法国将根据舰载系统和核动力推进系统的状况，评估“戴高乐”号是否还能继续服役更长时间。

由于只有一艘航母，每当“戴高乐”号航母进坞进行定期维护时，法国就没有航母可用。每当立法者质询海军高层时，是否需要第二艘航母的问题就会浮出水面。

一个障碍是成本，未来“自由法国”号航母的预算估计为 100 亿欧元（112 亿美元），这足以建造至少 10 艘新的 FDI 级护卫舰。

“我们需要两艘航母吗？两艘航母可以让我们在土伦港保持高度戒备，”克吕泽尔在国民议会国防委员会上说道，他指的是“戴高乐”号航母位于法国南部的母港。“两艘航母是一个政治目标，我无权决定它是否合适。”

海军上将指出，要保持海上永久存在，需要三艘航母。

他表示，未来的“自由法国”号和“戴高乐”号航母将在2036年至2038年期间有两年的服役重叠期，届时两艘航母将同时配备两套现役舰艇的人员。海军司令称，这对于技能的无缝衔接至关重要。这将是自​​上世纪90年代末以来，法国首次同时拥有两艘航母服役。当时，法国海军使用的是常规动力航母“福煦”号和“克莱蒙梭”号。

克鲁泽尔说：“像这样的能力转型必须一气呵成，不能有任何中断，否则就有可能失去技能，而且重建这些技能需要非常非常长的时间。因此，从2036年到2038年，海军将再次拥有两艘能够同时在海上服役的航母。”

法国方面表示，“自由法兰西”号航母长310米，排水量约8万吨，而“戴高乐”号航母长261.5米，排水量4.2万吨。现役“戴高乐”号航母可搭载40架舰载机，主要包括舰载版“阵风”战斗机、两架E-2C“鹰眼”预警机以及若干架直升机。

据克鲁泽尔称，延长“戴高乐”号航母服役寿命的研究将着眼于航母核动力推进系统核心部件——反应堆堆芯的磨损情况，以及通过延长燃料在航母上的储存时间来延长其运行时间的能力。他表示，研究结果预计将于2029年初公布，并将成为决定性因素。

克鲁泽尔说：“但这些研究也将涵盖载体的所有动脉，因为载体与其动脉一样古老，其可用性最终绝不能取决于或受到哪怕一个辅助系统的可用性的影响。所以这些研究确实非常全面。”

尽管美国总统特朗普下令美国海军恢复使用蒸汽弹射器，法国仍坚持为“自由法兰西”号航母安装美国制造的电磁弹射器。克鲁泽尔表示，他预计将于下周在华盛顿与美国海军上将达里尔·考德尔会晤，讨论这一议题。

法国海军上将表示，电磁弹射器展现出了“极高的可靠性”，自美国投入使用以来已进行了近4万次弹射，可用率约为98%。“因此，对于一种在用途灵活性方面具有巨大作战附加值的弹射器而言，这非常了不起，它既可以弹射重型飞机，也可以弹射无人机。”

法国海军司令表示，他认为这份合同不会有风险，因为美国已经拥有三艘配备电磁弹射器和阻拦装置的核动力航母，这意味着生产线已经存在，并且有可行的维护、修理和大修计划。

据克鲁泽尔称，法国致力于减少对外国的依赖，就像当年为戴高乐号战列舰上的蒸汽动力弹射器所做的那样，法国将在电磁弹射器项目启动之初就购买“大量”备件，以确保能够独立进行维修。

克鲁泽尔表示，他认为法国没有必要使用短距起飞/垂直降落飞机，因为这些飞机在航程或武器装备方面都会有所妥协。“自由法国”号的目标是成为一艘“制空航母”，这位海军上将说道。“而这正是配备弹射器和阻拦索的核动力航母所能提供的。”克鲁泽尔表示，鉴于目前制空权和制海权争夺“或许遍及全球”，制空航母势在必行，任何作战行动的第一步都是夺回局部制空权。“在茫茫大海之中，要想获得制空权，唯一的办法就是拥有这种能力。”

海军司令还谈到了新型的“防御与干预”护卫舰，他说这艘护卫舰“已经兑现了所有承诺”。他表示，法国海军集团建造的这艘新型护卫舰受到了工业竞争对手的批评，但事实证明它“极其适航且稳定，这与你们可能读到的某些说法相反”。

克鲁泽尔称FDI新型平板雷达的探测能力“卓越”，尽管安装位置低于水线，但其性能“至少与法国防空护卫舰上的雷达处于同一水平”。这位海军上将表示，护卫舰上数字处理系统的原生集成显著提升了声呐的探测能力。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。