To: quidnunc
This doesn't make any sense. First, "The Strategy Page" is a hangout for a lot of wannabees, led by Jim Dunnigan, who learned all he knows of war curled up with a book or playing a board game... so usually their "strategy" is a bit suspect. Sometimes more than a bit, as now.
The British carrier can't replace the French ship... the French ship is bigger and can operate conventional (albeit carrier-equipped) aircraft. It has been well over 20 years since the British could field anything but STOVL carriers. The French don't have any STOVL aircraft in service (well, apart from helicopters). There is absolutely no hope of operating E-2s off of anything the British are building or planning to build.
A STOVL carrier fleet can project power if you have first-rate selection and training of personnel -- as the UK showed in the South Atlantic War. But it can't project power the way a conventional attack carrier can, especially a nuclear-powered one. If the details described in the report are true, then the French have a ship that has many deficiencies, but its concept is what they are looking for. But the details are not exactly true. For instance, the propellers have been replaced with older ones, while a new one is being made to replace one that failed in testing (this is why you have testing. The propellers have to be replaced in pairs for symmetry). For another, they did indeed find too little safety margin for the E-2 early warning plane -- so they increased the size of the landing area. Problem solved.
If they were to set C de G aside, a better choice for them than a British helicopter-and-Harrier-ship would be any of the several US carriers in mothballs, but the thing is, the 40,000 ton Charles de Gaulle meets the needs of the French Navy just fine.
I grant that the French have been much less steadfast allies than the British, but there are Frenchmen putting their lives on the line in Afghanistan, and the French at least have maintained a powerful navy, which the British have not done.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
To: Criminal Number 18F
I thought the Brits where designing or building a new full size Carrier...sure I heard or read that somewhere...off to google I go...
88 posted on
12/05/2003 10:41:55 PM PST by
Blue Scourge
(A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth - T. Jefferson)
To: Criminal Number 18F
89 posted on
12/05/2003 10:47:21 PM PST by
Blue Scourge
(A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth - T. Jefferson)
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