RAF fast jets could fly from French carrier

The Financial Times ^ | October 27 2010 | Ben Hall in Paris and James Blitz

[sukhoi-30mki]

RAF fast jets could fly from French carrier

By Ben Hall in Paris and James Blitz in London

Published: October 27 2010 22:34

Britain’s next generation of fast jets could be permitted to fly off France’s flagship Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier under a defence treaty that will deepen military co-operation between the two nations.

As David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, prepare to meet in London next week for their first bilateral summit, both countries are set to embark on an unprecedented level of co-ordination over the operation of aircraft carriers and other military hardware.

Following the completion of Britain’s strategic defence and security review last week, it looks increasingly certain that the UK and France will each have just one operational aircraft carrier – the Queen Elizabeth and the Charles de Gaulle – towards the end of the decade.

Britain has announced that in order to boost joint military operations with Paris, it will reconfigure the Queen Elizabeth with catapults that will allow it to launch France’s Rafale jets.

Mr Sarkozy will next week announce that he is exploring the possibility of reconfiguring the Charles de Gaulle so that it can carry the new Joint Strike Fighter jets that Britain will acquire at the end of the decade.

An accord on how and when Britain and France deploy their carriers will be the centrepiece of a treaty to be agreed next week that covers about a dozen proposals on defence co-operation.

Sceptics will argue that Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac launched a high-profile drive for Franco-British co-operation at St Malo in 1998 only for it to founder over UK support for the Iraq invasion.

[microgood]

Mr Sarkozy will next week announce that he is exploring the possibility of reconfiguring the Charles de Gaulle so that it can carry the new Joint Strike Fighter jets that Britain will acquire at the end of the decade.

I thought that thing had to be towed everywhere. You mean it runs under its own propulsion now?

[FormerACLUmember]

A 16 year old obsolete rust-bucket.

[Libloather]

French carrier:

[Vroomfondel]

ping

[Vincent Jappi]

Better speak of a quarter of an aircraft carrier, a.k.a. “NHS-style emergency response”.

[Vincent Jappi]

It was launched nine years ago, and an aircraft carrier can last 50 years; but it was built by the wrong people for pork reasons.

[tanknetter]

Britain has announced that in order to boost joint military operations with Paris, it will reconfigure the Queen Elizabeth with catapults that will allow it to launch France’s Rafale jets.

Mr Sarkozy will next week announce that he is exploring the possibility of reconfiguring the Charles de Gaulle so that it can carry the new Joint Strike Fighter jets that Britain will acquire at the end of the decade.

I thought it was still planned for QE to enter service with a ski jump, and for PoW to be the one that gets cats and wires ... with QE being retrofitted after PoW enters service (assuming QE is still owned by Britain at that point).

Cross-decking between the ships shouldn't be an issue at all. USN and French Navy planes do it often these days ... although Rafales appear to trap aboard USN CVN's with a ridiculously high angle-of-attack. Unless, of course, CdG has some kind of deck limitation for trapping an aircraft the size of an F-35C (which will be larger than a Legacy Hornet or Rafale).

[magslinger]

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[Vanders9]

This is the one where they built the deck too short to handle the aircraft, isn’t it?

[ken5050]

Seems to me this poses big problems. One nation is basing its future military response on the assumed aquiescence of another coutry’s FUTURE government..i.e. suppose France reverts to a left/socialist government, and the Brits want to strike somewheres in the Middle East..