Construction of the new French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is supposed to replace the Charles-de-Gaulle, will begin between late 2025 and early 2026 with the first sea trials in 2036-37, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced on Saturday. the parisian.
In an interview, he indicated that the government was going to “definitively start the start of its implementation at the end of 2025/beginning of 2026.”
“Sea trials should take place in 2036-2037”
The process will be registered in the next Military Programming Law (LPM) 2024-2030, for a total amount of 413,000 million euros, which must be presented this Tuesday to the Council of Ministers. “The companies Naval Group, Technicatome and the Atlantic shipyards will be able to start their construction,” added the minister.
“Sea trials should take place in 2036-2037,” he said, describing a 75,000-tonne “cathedral of technology and human skills.”
“There are only two countries in the world that know how to build and operate nuclear aircraft carriers: the Americans and us,” he said, vindicating its need in a global environment marked by the war in Ukraine and multiple international tensions.
“Having a carrier battle group strengthens our presence well beyond our own maritime space,” said Sébastien Lecornu. “Giving up this capability means losing unique know-how among our sailors and enduring degradation among other nations.”
“A request for additional spending of 1.5 billion euros in 2023”
According to him, a first sum of 5 billion euros will be dedicated to the aircraft carrier in the future LPM.
He also stated that he had “asked the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister to soon submit to Parliament a request for additional spending of 1.5 billion euros in 2023” to “mitigate the effects of inflation but also speed up the repair of our armies” . .
In the discussions on the LPM, Elisabeth Borne advocated small annual marches, to postpone the bulk of the budget effort after 2027, that is, at the end of the five-year period. In the event of a Parliament vote, the budget increase for 2023 would rise from €3 to €4.5 billion.
“There are operational emergencies”, he insisted, referring in particular to “our drone and anti-drone capabilities”, according to him key security issues, in particular before the Paris-2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Source: BFM TV
