Macron announces that the aircraft carrier of the future will be nuclear

Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday, December 8 that the new generation aircraft carrier, nicknamed “Pang” by the military, will indeed be nuclear powered. “Without military nuclear power, no civilian nuclear energy”, he insisted on the occasion of a visit to Le Creusot at the industrialist Framatome, a subsidiary of EDF and manufacturer of nuclear boilers.

This aircraft carrier, which does not yet have a name, should enter service by 2038. It will be nearly twice the size of the Charles de Gaulle that it must replace, with 75,000 tonnes against 43,000, and a waterline length of 305 meters against 262, according to the office of the Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly.

Able to embark Rafale, it will also have to embark the new fighters planned in the air combat system of the future (Scaf) project, larger than their predecessors (30 tons against 22 to 24 tons), which required to lengthen the flight deck in relation to the Charles. As a replacement for steam catapults, the new aircraft carrier will be equipped with electromagnetic catapults (Emals), developed by the United States and already deployed (not without difficulty) on theUSSGerald R. Ford. The airborne group will be made up of 30 fighters, aerial lookout planes and helicopters, as well as drones, which are an essential part of the Scaf project developed in particular with Germany.

Several billion euros

The nuclear reactor will be a new model K22 (220 MW thermal), which must be developed on the basis of the current K15 (150 MW thermal) and which will probably also equip future nuclear attack submarines, successors of the generation. Barracuda which is just entering service. A gain in power necessary for a larger aircraft carrier, which must imperatively maintain a speed of 27 knots (about 50 km / h) to catapult the planes, which use the relative force of the wind to take off.

The ship’s crew will remain stable, with 2,000 sailors. The trauma of the Covid-19 epidemic on board the Charles de Gaulle having been there, the sailors will have more room in the living spaces, with rooms with a maximum of eight beds, instead of sixteen currently. The State will invest 900 million euros by 2025 for the first phase of studies, which should lead to the start of the work. Some estimates put the total cost of the ship at 5 billion. This unit cost could drop if a second is built, which is not on the program for the moment… “but not excluded” according to the minister’s office.

“The end of the beginning”

“It’s historic! This is the second time in history that France has embarked on the design of a nuclear aircraft carrier ”, confides Florence Parly to the Point. “It is an immense pride and a very great responsibility also for all those who will be responsible for building this flagship, which is the standard of our national navy and around which many European navies are found,” he adds. she.

Presenting in 2020 a ship that will enter service in 2038 may seem inappropriate, but it is a normal time frame for this type of pharaonic program that the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) is crazy about. The Charles de Gaulle, for example, had been ordered in 1986 (it was then to be baptized “Richelieu”, but Jacques Chirac will decide otherwise), the work had started in 1987, it had been launched in 1994 then admitted to active service in 2001, that is to say fifteen years after the order.

Today, 28 ships in the world can carry at least 15 planes, according to the ministry, which estimates their number at 36 in 2040. “The political weight of these tools of sovereignty is massive, the world is endowing it more and more. more “, assures the cabinet of the minister, which welcomes the crossing of this new stage of the project by a formula:” It is the end of the beginning! ”