Deployed in the Indian Ocean as part of a naval strike group, FNS Charles de Gaulle, the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is visiting Kochi and Goa naval bases to carry out joint training exercises with the Indian Navy over the next few days.
The Indian and French ships will participate in the 42nd edition of Exercise Varuna. “The aim of this aero-naval training is to develop interoperability between our two navies, and to prepare crews to deal with a multi-milieu threat (air, surface, submarine) as part of a coalition,” a statement issued by the Embassy of France in New Delhi said.
While the French Navy at present operates a single aircraft carrier – and the only nuclear propelled one outside the US Navy, the Indian fleet comprises two aircraft carriers – INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant. The three ships are broadly similar in size and capability, though the French carrier is slightly smaller, slower and older.
Unlike INS Vikramaditya, the Indian Navy’s flagship, and INS Vikrant which are propelled by fossil fuel driven engines requiring regular replenishment, FNS Charles de Gaulle is nuclear powered, giving it unlimited range.
Both the Indian carriers can carry up to 36 aircraft including MiG-29K multi-role fighters and Kamov Ka-28 and Ka-31 helicopters for anti-submarine operations and airborne early warning, while INS Vikrant. A naval variant of the indigenous Tejas fighter has also been developed for deployment on these carriers.
FNS Charles de Gaulle, the French Navy’s flagship, too, has a similar air complement comprising 30-40 aircraft, including 30 French Rafale-M fighters, two US-origin E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft and five helicopters.
Notably, the Indian Navy is also steaming ahead to acquire 26 maritime variants of the Rafale for its carrier air fleet. The IAF already operates two squadrons of these multi-role aircraft, one based in the western sector and the other in the east.
All three carriers also carry a wide array of radars, sensors, electronic warfare suites and decoy systems along with self-defence weapon systems including anti-aircraft missiles and guns.
Commissioned in 2001, the French carrier displaces 42,000 tonnes and is 262 metres long. On the other hand, INS Vikramaditya, commissioned in 2013, displaces 45,400 tonnes and is 283 metres, while INS Vikrant, which joined the Indian fleet in 2022, displaces 45,263 meters in length.
These ships, however are much smaller than other large carriers like the USS Gerald R Ford, which, with a length of 333 meters, displaces 1,00,000 tonnes and carries 80 aircraft or Russia’s Admiral Kuznetsov and China’s Liaoning, both of which are 300 meters long, displace 59,000 tonnes and carry 50 aircraft.
FNS Charles de Gaulle is no stranger to the Indian Ocean, where it is currently sailing as part of Mission Clemenceau 25 along with its escorts of frigates and support ships, and operating alongside the Indian Navy.
The carrier is named after Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle, a decorated veteran of the two world wars who led the Free French Forces against Germany in World War-II and served as President of France from January 1959 to April 1969. Its home base is Toulon, a large port and major naval base on the Mediterranean Sea in southern France, which is also the headquarters of the French Mediterranean Fleet.
Soon after commissioning, its first mission away from home was in the Indian Ocean, where it arrived as part of a French task force in December 2001 to support the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom against Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Its aircraft carried out several hundred strike and recce missions.
Fighters from FNS Charles de Gaulle, along with those from the US Navy, also carried out air patrols in the northern Arabian Sea in 2002, when India and Pakistan were locked in a military stand-off following the December 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament in New Delhi.
On several occasions, the French flagship has also been part of Exercise Varuna, an annual Indo-French naval drill that is conducted in the Indian Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean as part of France–India strategic relationship. The carrier was in the Indian Ocean in 2015, 2019 and 2023.
