Origin France
Type Aircraft Carrier
Year 1994
Displacement, tons 39 680
Dimensions, meters 262.0 x 65.0 x 75.0
Aircraft 40 Fighter
4 Helicopters
Missiles 8 x Aster 8 8 x Sadral
Guns 8 x 20mm
Torpedo N/A
Main Engines 2 Nuclear Power Plants.
Two propellers with 4 blades each, 80,000 ch (56,000 kW);
Electric power: 21,400 kW
Speed, knots 27
Range, miles 50.000
Complement 1450
The Charles de Gaulle (R91) is the tenth aircraft carrier in service with the French navy, and the first French nuclear surface vessel. She is named after the French politician and general Charles de Gaulle.
She is the flagship of the French navy. Her complement of Dassault Rafale and E-2 Hawkeye, as well as state-of-the-art electronics and Aster missiles, give her offensive power unseen before in France.
The carrier replaced the Foch conventionally powered aircraft carrier in 2001. The Clemenceau and Foch were completed in 1961 and 1963 respectively; the requirement for a replacement was identified in the mid 1970s.
The hull was laid down in April 1989 at the DCN Brest Naval shipyard. The carrier was completed in May 1994 and at 35,500 tonnes was the largest warship launched in Western Europe since HMS Ark Royal in 1950.
She was baptised Richelieu in 1986, after the famous French politician Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal and Duc de Richelieu (following a traditional name for capital ships in the French Navy, see battleship Richelieu for instance), but was rebaptised to Charles de Gaulle the year after by Prime Minister of the time, Jacques Chirac.
