January 11, 2023 | International, Aerospace
Colombian Air Force to buy more T-6C training aircraft
The negotiations are part of an effort to acquire up to 24 of the trainers, unveiled by the Defense Ministry in December.
December 9, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval
Macron kicks off French race to build a new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Dec. 8 that his country's next aircraft-carrier will be nuclear-powered and should be operational by 2038 in time to replace the Charles de Gaulle, which entered active service in 2001.
The new aircraft carrier is expected to be the biggest warship France has ever built. Florence Parly, the armed forces minister, said in October that the ship, whatever its propulsion, would be designed to deploy the future combat aircraft system (FCAS) and today her ministry confirmed that the vessel would deploy about 30 of these aircraft “which will be bigger than the Rafales.”
The ministry said the ship would be in the 75,000 tonne class (82,673 tons), be around 300 meters long (984 feet) and be able to sail at 27 knots (31 mph), even bigger than the second aircraft carrier that Naval Group was working on in the early 2000s until that program was shelved by the government for lack of money. In comparison, the Charles de Gaulle is 261m (856 feet) long and weighs 42,000 tonnes (46,297 tons) fully loaded. The new ship will have a crew of about 2,000, including the air group.
Speaking at Framatome, France's principal nuclear-power company headquartered at Le Creusot in the centre of France, Macron announced just four minutes before the end of his 28 minute speech that he had “decided that the future aircraft-carrier which will serve our country and our navy will, like the Charles de Gaulle, be nuclear-propelled.”
It will have two K22 power generators each generating 220 megawatts (hence the 22) derived from the K15 (that generate 150 MW each) that currently power the Charles de Gaulle.
Naval Group, which is the prime contractor for these major ship-building projects, immediately issued a statement hailing the decision, pledging to work with its major industrial partners Chantiers de l'Atlantique, TechnicAtome and Dassault Aviation.
Pierre Eric Pommellet, chairman and CEO of Naval Group, said, “We are delighted with the announcement (...) which will enable France to maintain its position in the very restricted circle of major powers holding a nuclear aircraft carrier.”
Echoing what Macron had said in his speech, Pommellet stressed the importance of projects like this to “ensure the continuity of our skills” and of developing innovative solutions “in the fields of propulsion and high added-value military systems, thus maintaining France's technological lead and its position as a key geostrategic player.”
Now that the nuclear option has been chosen to power France's new aircraft carrier, other major decisions will have to be taken, notably concerning the catapults which are a vital part of the project. France has no expertise in this highly specialized technology and so will have to import the catapults from the United States, as it has done for the past 60 years. Those on the Charles de Gaulle are steam-powered, but those on the new aircraft carrier will be electromagnetic.
Naval Group and its partners will now start a two-year preliminary design study, which sources said may use a number of the ideas that had been worked on for the aborted second aircraft carrier. That will be followed by more detailed plans with the development phase expected to finish at the end of 2025 at which point the ministry will order the ship. The design phase up to the end of 2025 is expected to cost some €900 million ($1.09 billion) of which €117 million ($142 million) will be spent in 2021.
On the same subject
-
-
June 23, 2024 | International, Security
Military-themed Email Scam Spreads Malware to Infect Pakistani Users
Discover how the PHANTOM#SPIKE phishing campaign targets Pakistan with military-themed emails, spreading malware via ZIP file attachments.
-
November 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Garantir l’indépendance de la BITD, enjeu essentiel pour la souveraineté
DEFENSE Garantir l'indépendance de la BITD, enjeu essentiel pour la souveraineté A l'occasion du Paris Air Forum, Françoise Dumas, Présidente de la commission de Défense nationale et des forces armées de l'Assemblée Nationale, Antoine Bouvier, Directeur de la stratégie, des fusions acquisitions et des affaires publiques chez Airbus, Thomas Courbe, Directeur général des entreprises, et François Mestre, chef du Service des Affaires industrielles et de l'Intelligence économique à la DGA, ont participé à une table-ronde consacrée aux enjeux de la préservation de la Base Industrielle et Technologique de Défense (BITD) française. L'importance de l'autonomie industrielle a été soulignée : la BITD française est la seule en Europe à être capable de répondre à tous les besoins des armées. L'État doit garantir les moyens d'assurer la course technologique et éviter la captation des entreprises ou des données par d'autres puissances. Il est également fondamental de préserver dans le pays les compétences : très longues à acquérir, elles disparaissent très rapidement, et ne peuvent plus être retrouvées, explique Françoise Dumas. Le soutien à l'apprentissage est également essentiel, et les investissements consentis par l'État, autant en R&D que par la commande publique, sont des leviers très importants, sans oublier les fonds mis à la disposition, notamment, des PME. Antoine Bouvier a souligné la grande cohérence de la filière en France, qui va des donneurs d'ordre aux PME capables de produire des composants. La Tribune du 25 novembre