The European aircraft carrier hypothesis re-emerges in Brussels

Thierry Breton, the Internal Market Commissioner, once again referred to the possibility of giving birth to a European aircraft carrier, while he presented the main lines of the European defense investment program which is intended to be historic. Raised repeatedly for several years, the hypothesis of building and implementing an aircraft carrier at the European level has always encountered numerous difficulties, some of them crippling. However, by moving away from the trivial vision of this program, realistic and effective solutions can be imagined to give it substance.

The European Navies currently have three aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Walles British and the Charles de Gaulle French, the only ship equipped with catapults, arresting lines and nuclear propulsion on the old continent.

Added to this are three aircraft carriers, the Cavour and Italian Trieste and the Spanish Juan Carlos I. Like the British ships, these do not have catapults or arresting lines, and can therefore only use helicopters or Harrier or F-35B short or vertical takeoff fighters.

The construction costs of these ships, their escort, and their on-board air group, as well as the staffing required to implement them, considerably limits the possibilities of expanding this fleet.

A disparate and uncoordinated fleet of aircraft carriers in Europe

Thus, questioned on the subject by the defense committee of the French National Assembly, Admiral Nicolas Vaujour admitted that it would probably be beyond the reach of the French Navy to equip itself witha second new generation nuclear aircraft carrier, the latter having neither the budgetary resources nor the human resources to achieve this.

However, and as shown by the emergency departure of the USS Gerald Ford and its escort, on a stopover in Marseille and Toulon, to deploy off the coast of Israel, the aircraft carrier, and its onboard air group , offer unique political and military means in many areas.

However, to date, the distribution and lack of coordination of European navies, but also of the countries themselves, considerably handicap the exploitation of this fleet, although considerable, since the second naval air fleet on the planet behind that of the United States .

It is in this context that a hypothesis re-emerges regularly at the European level, namely the possibility of building and implementing one or more aircraft carriers at the European level, rather than at the European level. national.

Thierry Breton unearths the idea of ​​the European aircraft carrier

This has been brought forward, once again, by the Internal Market Commissioner, Thierry Breton, responsible in particular for industrial and technological policy at the level of the European Union.

This announcement came as the European Commissioner presented the beginnings of what will be the new European investment program in defense equipment, which he promises to be more ambitious than ever, to respond to rapid developments of the international security situation.

The idea of ​​a European aircraft carrier is not new, and had even, in its time, received the approval of some of the most important European powers, in this case Germany through the voice of Angela Merkel in 2018, when she and France were much better aligned than they are today.

However, beyond European aspirations and ambitions, building and implementing an aircraft carrier, at European level, should face very significant challenges.

A recurring idea, but very difficult to implement

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