As soon as a French carrier will be able to deliver the jets of the U.S. Navy without any drama, then the point is made. The FS Charles de Gaulle (R91) is the sole nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in operation outside the United States, and its initial deployment to the Pacific made that novelty something more significant: a working model of coalition aviation at long range, based on the sea. The most obvious evidence was shown during the drills in the Japan area, when U.S. F/A-18 Super Hornets and French Rafale Ms completed cross-deck operations, a real-life experiment in proving that a non-U.S. flattop could fit into American carrier operations when it was needed.
The fact that interoperability is not the happenstance of good weather and judicious choreography. Charles de Gaulle has a steam catapult and arresting gear ecosystem that is very close to the U.S. naval aviation standards and its launch-and-recovery envelope is broad enough to accommodate aircraft up to the size of the Super Hornet and even the C-2 Greyhound should there ever be a need. The human system is also geared to it, behind the scenes: French Landing Signal Officers are trained in the United States, where they develop common procedures that are important at the moment aircraft begin to trap in the sea. Practically, the Pacific workup conducted with the ship demonstrated the potential of a European nuclear carrier to make a contribution to not only presence, but employable deck cycles within a combined air picture.
What it is is also credible to Charles de Gaulle, who in 2001 had a 42,000-ton ship commissioned that used two Areva K15 pressurized water reactors to provide 27 knots of power to the steam turbines. Depending on the set-up, the air wing is capable of reaching approximately 40 aircraft, and is based upon either Rafale M fighters or E-2C Hawkeyes, with helicopters capable of performing anti-submarine duties to plane guard. The carrier is actually armed with defensive systems Aster 15 surface-to-air missiles and overlapping close-in guns whose purpose is to keep the flight deck open and the sortie flow moving.
The Pacific deployment also arrived at a bad period of time to the person who considered carrier aviation as an American club. China is also constructing additional carriers and is strongly associated with a push towards nuclear propulsion, however France already had the experience of having a nuclear flattop to run across the theaters to distant destinations and combine with allies during high-tempo evolutions. It is not about one transit, but perseverance: Paris has demonstrated that it can produce a carrier strike group and use it effectively without reference to European waters.
The same reasoning now is carried over to the next vessel, the PA-Ng, which is supposed to replace Charles de Gaulle in 2038. The recent budget planning incorporates a third catapult EMALS track, an option that drives deck scheduling, capacity at surge, and the integration of crewed aircraft with new uncrewed models in the mix. It is also in progress in France where Rafale compatibility testing with EMALS and AAG is being conducted at Lakehurst, with an official target of achieving “several tonnes” extra MTOW than the current carrier an engineering modification that can be directly transformed into range, payload, or both.
The current details of design describe a 310-meter and approximately 78,000-ton ship with three EMALS tracks and AAG recovery, two-kV nuclear energy, and a deck design that is governed by an air group which can develop to drone-like alongside fighter aircraft. In case the debut of Charles de Gaulle in the Pacific demonstrated that France could introduce a nuclear deck into a U.S.-led beat, PA-Ng is being molded to accelerate the beat, add mass and gradually transform it into more unmanned.
