Charles de Gaulle (R91) is the only serving French aircraft carrier and is the flagship of the French Navy (Marine Nationale). Charles de Gaulle (R91) is the tenth French aircraft carrier, the first French nuclear-powered surface vessel, and the first and only nuclear-powered carrier built outside of the United States Navy. Charles de Gaulle (R91) is named after French statesman and general Charles de Gaulle. The Charles de Gaulle (R91) ship carries a complement of Dassault Rafale M and E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, as well as modern electronics and Aster missiles. Charles de Gaulle (R91) is the second largest European carrier, after the Admiral Kuznetsov. This French aircraft carrier is a CATOBAR-type carrier that uses a shorter version of the catapult system as that installed on the US Nimitz class carriers, the 75 m C13-3 steam catapult.
| General characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Unique aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: | 38,000 tons empty 42,000 tons full load |
| Length: | 261.5 metres (858 ft) overall |
| Beam: | 64.36 metres (211.2 ft) overall |
| Draught: | 9.43 metres (30.9 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × K15 pressurised water reactors (PWR), 150 MW each 4 × diesel-electric 2 × shafts |
| Speed: | 27 knots (50 km/h) |
| Range: | Essentially unlimited |
| Endurance: | 45 days of food |
| Capacity: | 800 commandos, 500 tonnes of ammunitions |
| Complement: | Ship's company: 1,350 Air wing: 600 |
| Sensors and processing systems: | DRBJ 11 B tridimensional air search radar DRBV 26D air search radar DRBV 15C low altitude air search radar Arabel target acquisition radar |
| Electronic warfare and decoys: | ARBR 21 Detector ARBB 33 Countermeasures suite ARBG2 MAIGRET Interceptor 4 × Sagaie decoys launcher SLAT (Système de lutte anti-torpille) torpedo countermeasures |
| Armament: | 4 × 8 cell SYLVER launchers carrying the MBDA Aster 15 surface to air missile. 2 × 6 cell Sadral launchers carrying Mistral short range missiles 8 × Giat 20F2 20 mm cannons. |
| Aircraft carried: | 40 aircraft, including *Rafale *Super Étendard *E-2C Hawkeye *SA365 Dauphin helicopters |
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 28 February 2000, a nuclear reactor trial triggered the combustion of additional isolation elements, producing a smoke incident.
During the night of 9 November 2000, in the Western Atlantic while en route toward Norfolk, Virginia, the port propeller broke and the ship had to return to Toulon to replace the faulty unit. 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).
On 5 March 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 8 November 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.
The French Navy is theoretically 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 requires another aircraft carrier to be built though, as the Charles de Gaulle is the only aircraft carrier currently serving.Cost considerations have made equipment standardization a necessity. In this context, there is 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.
