Delivered to the French Navy last week, the nuclear attack submarine [SNA] Tourville joined the Toulon naval base on the occasion of Submariners' Day on November 27. This arrival coincided with the departure of the carrier strike group [GAN] of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle [TF-473] for the Clemenceau 25 mission. This is indeed what the Ministry of the Armed Forces has just announced.
The details of this new deployment were confirmed at the last moment. On October 23, during a hearing in the Senate, the Chief of Staff of the National Navy [CEMM]Admiral Nicolas Vaujour, had in fact explained that no “final decision had been taken” regarding sending the carrier group to the Pacific. This “will depend on the evolution of the situation in the Near and Middle East”, he said, before recalling that “Charles de Gaulle is a strategic tool whose missions adapt to geopolitical realities”.
In any case, it is towards the Pacific that the carrier group will head. Unless I'm mistaken, this has not been seen since the “Alfa” missions, carried out by the aircraft carriers Foch and Clemenceau at the end of the 1960s, as part of the nuclear tests carried out at Mururoa.
In detail, and as recently indicated by Rear Admiral Jacques Mallard, the commander of the aero-maritime rapid reaction force and the GAN, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier “will contribute to NATO's defensive and dissuasive posture in the Mediterranean”, before participating in the annual bilateral exercise Varuna, in India. This will require transit in the Red Sea, and therefore increased vigilance due to attacks on maritime traffic launched by the Houthi rebels from Yemen.
Then the GAN will take part in the La Pérouse naval maneuvers, “in cooperation with the navies of the countries bordering the Indonesian archipelago”.
Finally, it will then join the Pacific Ocean to participate in the Pacific Steller exercise, the challenge of which will be “to increase interoperability” with the 7th Fleet of the US Navy.
“An aggregator of international forces by nature, the GAN will be reinforced in the Mediterranean Sea by the Italian, American, Moroccan and Greek allied frigates. […] A true tool of naval superiority, power projection and autonomous situation assessment, the GAN will be deployed in a complex strategic environment. The deployment of this military capacity underlines France's attachment to freedom of action and maritime and air circulation,” argued the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
Furthermore, Clemenceau 25 will also be an opportunity to carry out several experiments, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence.
“The deployment of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle […] marks a significant advancement in the integration of artificial intelligence and data collection technologies. With five onboard data hubs – one on the aircraft carrier, three on the accompanying and submarine frigates and one on Atlantique 2 – we are creating an interconnected network that will maximize the use of data collected on board. explained Admiral Vaujour.
Photo : Marine nationale
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