That is going to come as quite a shock both to the British and the French.
That is going to come as quite a shock both to the British and the French.
I doubt it. The two remaining British Invincible class carriers have a 20,000 ton displacement, carry about a dozed aircraft each, and were originally built for anti-submarine duty. The British conducted a defense review in 2001 and decided to replace their carriers with two new 65,000 ton carriers. The report specifically cites a current lack of ability to project power.
The French aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaul, is 38,00 tons displacement and carries about 40 aircraft. The de Gaul has been a disaster from day one. The flight deck wasn't long enough to accommodate the planes they intended to operate and this wasn't discovered until sea trials (Mon Dieu!). The de Gaul broke a propeller on its way to a port call in Virginia and had to return to France where it was discovered that the other propeller and both spares had the same fault. The company that had made the propellers was bankrupt and the navy had actually lost the designs (Mon Dieu!) so they had to rob propellers from an old decommissioned carrier. Also, due to poor operating procedures, a fire broke out in the reactor space during a reactor test and radioactive smoke was released contaminating parts of the interior of the ship. The French are considering building/buying a third ship of the new British (mon dieu!) Queen Elizabeth class.