[Criminal Number 18F]

Thanks for the post. Funny thing is after I posted the other day, I went and looked to see what the brits were doing next.

That carrier design is 50,000 tons (i.e. bigger than the French ship) and it is designed to be delivered as a STOVL only boat but convertible to catapults and arrested landing for conventional naval aircraft.

But deliveries are 10 years off. So it isn't going to solve the French Navy's problem.

In related news, one of the old carriers just got repo'd by France on the high sease when they found out the knackers they sold it to lied about what they were doing with it (they were supposed to strip it in Europe, safely... they were taking it to Pakistan where dollar-a-day Hadjis would tear it apart with hand tools.

I would definitely like to see both France and Britain operating conventional carriers. They are civilised nations and we need more such controlling the sea lanes. Right now, the only carriers I know about are ours, a Russian one undergoing refit for China, France's (in this thread), and older vessels operated by Brazil and Argentina. But I'm a ground guy with a minor in air. It's too boring to keep track of the empty 75% of the globe... that's what the Navy's for.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Travis McGee]

Didn't China buy a couple of semi-seaworthy ex-Soviet flat tops for studying and copying, and possibly refurbishing?

[Criminal Number 18F]

The net being the net, a current list of carriers is within reach:

http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers

Looking at this list, the Charles de Gaulle is probably the 2nd most potent carrier in the world (after all of ours) -- when it's working. Some of the stuff I posted above is not right... Argentina retired the 25th of May, as their carrier was called. Brazil has the old Foch and Clemenceau is the ship that the French just repo'd in the Med.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F