[Zhang Fei]

By a lot of accounts, the De Gaulle has been a near-disaster - up to and including its recent operations in Libya.

Out of curiosity, what issues have you seen in relation to the de Gaulle? It conducted 4-1/2 months of operations off the Libyan coast before being taken in to port for maintenance.

[tanknetter]

Out of curiosity, what issues have you seen in relation to the de Gaulle? It conducted 4-1/2 months of operations off the Libyan coast before being taken in to port for maintenance.

Limitations due to airwing size (so poor sortie rate/inability to sustain sortie rate) and stores endurance (requires too frequent replenishment. Specifically, since she is nuclear powered, fuel, parts and bombs for the airwing).

The French Navy has even had to "borrow" a couple C-2s from the USN to help alleviate matters. Somewhat. The C-2s mean that replacement parts and some limited stores can be flown aboard directly (rather than being flown into a nearby airbase then transferred to helos for delivery to the ship).