The Charles de Gaulle is a 40,000 ton
nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the
flagship of the
French navy. It carries a crew of 1,950 and has cost the equivalent of GBP 7 billion since work began on it in 1986. It is intended to replace the
Foch and the
Clemenceau, both conventionally powered carriers. It is the only catapult-type nuclear aircraft carrier ever constructed in
Europe. It was launched in 1994 but not commissioned until 2000.
The Charles de Gaulle is 260m long, with a 195m flight deck angled at 8.5o, with two catapults capable of launching one aircraft per minute, and carries up to 37 Rafale and Super Etendard fighters and 3 E-2C Hawkeyes. It has a pair of tracks below the flight deck along which 22-ton weights are moved back and forth under computer control to maintain stability within 0.5o of horizontal.
The project has been a disaster for the French navy, and the ship is known amongst sailors as le bateau maudit, or "the ship of the damned". It has never completed a tour of service. In November 2000, a large segment of one of the 19-ton propellors broke off during exercises in the Bermuda Triangle. The ship limped back to Toulon to discover that the manufacturer, Atlantic Industries, had gone bankrupt the previous year, so the propellors were cannibalized from the older carriers. Vibration in the rudders means that it cannot exceed 15 knots despite being powered for 27 by its two reactors.
Prior to this, the ship had to undergo an expensive modification when it was discovered that the flight deck was actually too short to operate the US-made Hawkeye radar surveillance aircraft. In addition, the decks had to be repainted, because the paint corroded the arrest wires needed for aircraft to land. In 1996, the casings surrounding the reactors needed reinforcement because the crew were being exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation.
In December 2001, the ship finally deployed to join Operation Enduring Freedom and is presently stationed in the Arabian Gulf.