Problems continue to delay French carrier Charles De Gaulle

Sea Power, Apr 1999 by Cavas, Christopher P

Although France's new nuclearpowered aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle continues to experience construction difficulties, authorities are hopeful that further delays can be minimized. Builder DCN announced on 24 February that sea trials would be suspended because of technical problems with the ship's electrical auxiliary propulsion motors and electrical pumps, giving rise to fears the ship might not be able to carry out extensive trials planned for this year. However, by early March, authorities had announced that the propulsion problems had been fixed. Work on ballbearings in the pumps continued, with hopes that the ship might resume trials before the end of the month.

The latest problems follow embarrassing sea trials during late January that initially were delayed by bad weather. The Charles De Gaulle put to sea for a planned weeklong series of tests, only to return after one day due to a fire in the engine room. Extensive tests with the new Rafale attack/interceptor aircraft are critical to this year's planned trials schedule. The decommissioning of France's remaining carrier, Foch, has been timed to coincide with De Gaulle's entry into service.

The completion of the complex ship has been delayed for over four years for various technical and political reasons. Before this latest delay, official French Navy announcements had the ship entering service in March 2000; current forecasts envision her entering commissioned service several months later, but no firm date has been set.

Construction of the 40,600-ton aircraft carrier, designed to operate up to 40 aircraft, started in 1989. The final construction cost is expected to be well over $3 billion.