Macron decides to build a nuclear aircraft carrier to perpetuate France's "grandeur"

It was an open secret that only lacked official pronouncement. It was the President of the French Republic himself, Emmanuel Macron, who confirmed that the future French aircraft carrier will also be powered by a pair of nuclear reactors and will serve to "protect France, the French and respond to the threats of tomorrow's world".

The initiative made public by the French head of state aims to ensure that his country maintains an important role on the world geostrategic stage and that its voice is taken seriously by the United States, China, Russia and India. To achieve this, Macron is aware that he needs to maintain a force-projection naval aircraft group, whose flagship should be an advanced nuclear aircraft carrier which, in his own words, "should continue to be the cornerstone of France's strategic autonomy".

For Defence Minister Florence Parly, an aircraft carrier is "a symbol of power, a testimony to our capacity for action and the voice of France in all the waters of the globe". A large warship powered by a nuclear plant provides an almost unlimited range of action and requires no fuel supply, except for paraffin for its aircraft.

Emmanuel Macron's decision is an endorsement of France's defence technology base, its major nuclear industry and the sustainability of both sectors, precisely at a time when the French economy is going through a less than buoyant period. There is no doubt that building an aircraft carrier powered by nuclear boilers is a perfect symbiosis of both challenges and is key to France maintaining its competences in both industrial fabrics.

For the time being called PANG - acronym for the French New Generation Aircraft Carrier - the future aircraft carrier will have around 75,000 tonnes of displacement, a length of over 300 metres and a crew of two thousand. In order to reach a speed of 27 knots, it will be fitted with two K22 nuclear plants, which will provide 220 megawatts, enough to supply the electricity required by a medium-sized Spanish city. 

To give you an idea of the magnitude of what is at stake, the current French aircraft carrier, the R91 Charles de Gaulle, has a maximum displacement of 42,000 tonnes, is 261 metres long and is powered by two K15 nuclear reactors that provide it with 150 megawatts. And it is served by just under 2,000 sailors, almost the same number of personnel required to take over.

The pharaonic project is not for tomorrow, far from it. It is due to come into service in 2038, coinciding with the withdrawal of the Charles de Gaulle, which was launched in May 1994. It has been in operation since May 2001 and has already undergone half-life modernisation. For the French coffers, the PANG represents an annual investment of 225 million euros over the next twenty years, which means a minimum of 4.5 billion for the complete design and construction of the mammoth ship. But few doubt that the total outlay will eventually exceed 5 billion or even more.

Significant cost overruns are on the horizon. For example, the National Navy wants to include in the PANG the complex and expensive electromagnetic systems to put the embarked planes in the air. On board will be the naval version of the future generation fighter of the European FCAS project (SCAF in French), which is estimated to weigh between 30 and 40 tonnes, much heavier than the Rafale fighters on board the R91.

Although the contract for the construction of the PANG is still far from being signed, without a doubt the architect of the project and the maximum responsible for making it a reality will be the state shipyard Naval Group - formerly the Directorate of Naval Construction of the French Ministry of Defence - which has been in charge of the design, construction and operational maintenance of all the French aircraft carriers since the 1960s.

Naval Group will have as its main industrial partners Chantiers de l'Atlantique, which will take on a large part of the workload for the construction of the ship; TechnicAtome, which will develop and implement the nuclear propulsion system; and the manufacturer Dassault Aviation, which will provide the 30 fighter jets on board. The PANG will also serve to maintain the nearly 15,000 jobs that the state shipyard has at its factories in Angoulême-Ruelle, Bagneux, Brest, Lorient, Nantes-Indret, Toulon and the thousands of employees throughout its supply chain.

The working group to analyse the alternatives for the R91 relay began its work in October 2018, which lasted 18 months. National Navy commanders and industry technicians, the Directorate General of Armaments and the Atomic Energy and Atomic Alternatives Commission studied in depth whether it was more appropriate to opt for a conventionally powered aircraft carrier or to opt for a much more expensive nuclear one.

Strategic, technical, operational and economic factors were taken into account and the decision should have been taken last June. But the economic and social situation made it advisable to delay the decision until less than a week ago. With the arrival of the new year, the preliminary design studies for the PANG will begin and will last for 24 months.

Other work will follow to finalise its final architecture and make way for the development of the on-board systems and the construction of the huge aircraft carrier, which is estimated to be completed by 2025, at which point the huge task of making it a reality will begin. The sea trials are envisaged on the horizon of 2036 and the entry into service is scheduled for 2038, the year in which the Charles de Gaulle is due to return definitively to port, abandon its presence in the seas and oceans and make way for the PANG.

Although the largest ship of the French Navy, the PANG will not reach the enormous capacities, dimensions and tonnage of its US Navy counterparts, which has 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and another four in various stages of construction. But at least on the computer, it already surpasses the two Royal Navy aircraft carriers, the R08 Queen Elisabeth and the R09 Prince of Wales, which have been operating since December 2017 and December 2019, respectively. Both have a displacement of 65,000 tonnes, are 284 metres long and can take on a maximum of 40 aircraft, including planes and helicopters.

China has two aircraft carriers, the most modern of which is the Shandong, in active service since December 2019. But it has a third under construction and a programme to reach a total of six in the 2030s is under way. The Indian Navy has opted for the Vikrant, which is under construction at the Cochin shipyard in Kerala, 2,600 kilometres from New Delhi. With a displacement of 45,000 tons and a length of 261 metres, and based on a Russian design, it is already undergoing sea trials and is estimated to be operational in the first quarter of 2021.