PARIS (AP) — France will build a new aircraft carrier with capacity for 30 fighter jets and 2,000 sailors, French President Emmanuel Macron announced Sunday in what he described as “a demonstration of our nation’s strength in the service of freedom on the seas and amid the turmoil of our times.”
“In an era of predators, we must be strong to fear, and especially strong at sea. That is why, in accordance with the last two military programming laws, and after a careful and thorough review, I have decided to equip France with a new aircraft. The decision to launch the construction of this program on a large scale was taken this week”, said Macron French station Abu.
The new vessel is scheduled to be completed in 2038, replacing the aging aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which entered service in 2001. It will have a displacement of about 78,000 tons and a length of 310 meters (1,017 feet), compared to 42,000 tons for 85,000 meters for Charles de Gauet (85,000 feet) and 26 de Gauet1.
The new carrier will still be smaller than the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, the largest warship in the world, which has a displacement of more than 100,000 tons and measures 1,100 feet (334 meters).
Like its predecessor, France’s new aircraft carrier will be nuclear powered and equipped with French Rafale M fighter jets.
Macron said the project will benefit hundreds of suppliers, most of them small and medium-sized businesses.
“I will personally guarantee this commitment in support of our companies, and I will visit the yard next February to meet them,” he said.
The new carrier will be able to engage in heavily armed and long-range deployments at short notice, repeatedly and for extended periods of time, the French defense ministry said on its website.
In 2023, the cost of a new aircraft carrier was estimated at around 10 billion euros ($11.7 billion) by Sébastien Lecornu, then defense minister and now French prime minister.
Macron has announced 6.5 billion euros ($7.6 billion) in additional military spending over the next two years. He said France would aim to spend 64 billion euros on defense in 2027, the last year of his second term, double the level of 32 billion euros when he became president in 2017.
France’s military currently includes around 200,000 active personnel and over 40,000 reservists, making it the second largest in the European Union, just behind Poland. France wants to increase the number of reservists to 80,000 by 2030.