Carrier momentum

National Review, March 28, 1986

Carrier Momentum

PARIS The Defense Ministry has decided to build a new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to maintain the credibility of France's military power. The vessel, bearing the illustrious name of Richelieu, will take its place with the fleet in ten years. Construction will require 12 million man-hours (there is as yet no monetary estimate). The ability to intervene from a base that has no territorial, and little diplomatic, restriction is an immense advantage in creating "a common frontier" with almost any adversary, say French naval spokesmen. The common-frontier theory rests on the fact that two-thirds of the world's population, and therefore industry, is concentrated within 250 miles of the sea, and thus within range of the carrier's aircraft. The navy's present carrier, the Clemenceau, is due to go out of service in 1992. This would leave a four-year gap before the Richelieu's commissioning.