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Europe
Essential French Aircraft Carrier Not Seaworthy
2010-11-01
The French aircraft carrier which is set to play a key role in defending Britain over the next decade has broken down.

As President Nicolas Sarkozy prepares to use a London summit this week to announce that RAF jets will fly from the carrier Charles de Gaulle, his naval chiefs have told him that she is no longer seaworthy.
The Chicken of the Sea has never swum properly ...
I don't understand it. The French do so many technical things so beautifully... and so many beautiful things so beautifully, too.
'She is meant to be heading to Afghanistan but is instead in her home port with a faulty propulsion system,' said a French Navy source.
I'm very confused. Afghanistan is landlocked, therefore having no coastline toward which a ship of any real size could head.
That would be the Afghanistan Theater of Operations. Such fine points are lost to some elements of the press, and that is why they fail to make the reference.
After Britain's defence review last week, it looks certain that the UK and France will pool resources by each having one aircraft carrier towards the end of the decade.

But Britain will have to rely on the Charles de Gaulle till at least 2020 while the UK's new carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is being built. This follows the scrapping of the Ark Royal and its Harrier jump jets.

The de Gaulle's captain, Hugues du Plessis d'Argentri, said the 16-year-old vessel was not as efficient as she used to be, despite a three-year refit. He said his ship's nuclear reactor would have to be given time to 'cool down' before vital repairs were carried out. And he warned that it might even be Christmas before the carrier could resume her mission to Afghanistan.
I thought she was going to the coast of Somalia as part of the pirate interdiction force. Do the French jets off the de Gaulle have the legs for combat support missions in Afghanistan?
That makes much more sense -- Somalia has a sea coast, suitable for water-going vehicles.
Posted by: Anonymoose

#14  Pity, it would have been the scourge of the middle east.
Posted by: bigjim-CA   2010-11-01 21:48  

#13  If the Brits and French want an Aircraft carrier and they don't want a U.S. one, there is only one other country with a success in this area. Have the Japanese build you one at the Korean shipyards. They had some success in the late 1930s and early 1940s with building them.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge    2010-11-01 16:23  

#12  The De Gaulle is the prime example of a camel being a horse designed by committee : The French were having issues with large propeller design and so went with a single screw based on an older much smaller carrier design, instead of the 2 screws that the Navy was demanding. And did NOT design in the capability to add in a second screw when the propeller issues were resolved. As a result, the single screw is ALWAYS overtorqued moving the Pier, and snaps off on a regular basis. Also, the electrical systems were built NOT by the design team ship building firm, but by another French firm as a way to "spread the wealth" of French defense spending to other companies.
Posted by: Shieldwolf   2010-11-01 15:23  

#11  In a couple years, Disney will have a larger fleet than the EU.

Scarier, too.
Posted by: gorb   2010-11-01 14:34  

#10  in her home port with a faulty propulsion system

We've lots of functioning propulsion systems here they could rent. Tow boats. And/or tug boats. They're nothing but (barely) floating propulsion systems.
Posted by: Glenmore   2010-11-01 13:52  

#9  In a couple years, Disney will have a larger fleet than the EU.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2010-11-01 13:21  

#8  Maybe this all part of a brilliant plan to make sure that the future Islamic Republic of France does not have a functioning carrier.

Maybe we ought to be thanking them.
Posted by: charger   2010-11-01 11:29  

#7  The "Chuckles" is a definite pier queen.
Posted by: mojo   2010-11-01 11:25  

#6  Carriers are primarily useful for power projection, not for defense. Europe's interests in power projection are waining anyway.

Hopefully this is a wakeup call to the Brits on outsourcing their defense needs but I doubt it.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2010-11-01 09:51  

#5  Proof of God's sense of humor will be the French sending subcontracted Indian technicians to 'repair and fix' the French helicopter carriers sold to the Russians.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2010-11-01 09:32  

#4  July 08, 2008
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has moved from the Persian Gulf into the Gulf of Oman so its warplanes can fly missions over Afghanistan, where attacks have been rising, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

The carrier was ordered to move so it could conduct potential airstrikes over Afghanistan by flying over Pakistani airspace.

If it had remained inside the Persian Gulf, that would not have been possible since U.S. planes do not fly through Iranian air corridors.

I would have thought this was obvious...
Posted by: gromky   2010-11-01 08:02  

#3  Amazing how French engineering know-how has turned an aircraft carrier design into a perfectly good pier.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839   2010-11-01 02:56  

#2  WAFF > RADIO FREE EUROPE = MEDVEDEV VISIT TO KURILS STOKES JAPAN ROW.

POSTER = RUSS + JAPAN may still be technically at war becuz Japan deems the Russ-held Kurils/Kuriles as an integral part of its Northern Island of HOKKAIDO. i.e. EX-SOVIET, NOW RUSS MIL-OCCUPIED JAPAN???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2010-11-01 02:34  

#1  I guess KIMMIE + CHINA what AIRCRAFT CARRIER won't be around in the Yellow Sea to target.

* ION WMF > THE POSSIBILITY IS VERY GOOD: DAOYUS + OKINAWA MAY BECOME THE NEW "TAIWAN" IN US-CHINA STRATEGIC GAME IN EAST ASIA.

* SAME > CHINA TO LEASE TWO DPRK-CONTROLLED YALU RIVER ISLANDS AS FREEPORTS [Sino-DPRK FTA = SEZ-EEZ] FOR 100 YEARS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2010-11-01 02:23  

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