Posted on 10/28/2010 9:24:48 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is now en route to the region and will arrive there at the end of October, when a quarter of the world's nuclear aircraft carriers will gather in the stratgeic waters.
The French carrier is accompanied by two frigates, an attack submarine, a re-fuelling tanker, 3,000 sailors and 27 aircraft.
"The force would help allied navies fight piracy off the coast of Somalia and send jets to support NATO in the skies above Afghanistan," said the commander of the group, Rear Admiral Jean-Louis Kerignard.
This is while new opinion polls show that a vast majority of the French are against any military presence in Afghanistan and want an immediate withdrawal of troops from the war-torn country.
Charles de Gaulle is to join its two US counterparts already stationed in the waters, that is the nuclear-powered super carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group.
USS Lincoln and USS Truman are currently assigned to the Fifth Fleet's area of responsibility, which encompasses the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the eastern coast of Africa south to Kenya, the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf.
The Fifth is the first fleet established in the post-Cold War period and is in charge of several of the most strategic chokepoints on the planet that is the Suez Canal, the Bab Al Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz.
There are currently over 31 warships docked in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, nineteen of them belonging to the United States.
The recent additions will create a formidable armada covering the Arabian Sea from one end to the other.
(Excerpt) Read more at presstv.ir ...
bttt
French growing spines? Hope so.
For Iran a target rich environment. We never should have let them get this far.
I agree.The Strait of Hormuz is a big problem it is only 29 miles wide. Good place for an attack.
Had to fix my tag line.
LOL
The French are getting frisky. Has the price of brass dropped.
And NO, it will not be 1/4 of the world's Carriers.
We could put 3 there and it would still not be 1/4.
However, our Carriers are the only one's that count.
A French Aircraft Carrier? Is its fastest speed “Reverse?”
They finally got the De Gaulle working? Damn... that thing’s been in the yards for the first twenty years of it’s service life, I swear...
“A French Aircraft Carrier? Is its fastest speed “Reverse?””
At least we can use the French to draw out the enemy as they retreat.
ping
US Carrier Group will stay up wind at all times.
I know. Whose bright idea was let the French to join in?
Prob. that muslim lover rove.
I think the carrier in the Gulf is new but the French were with CTF 150 off Somalia when I was last there in ‘05-’06.
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