Official confirms design work nearly complete on future French Navy aircraft carrier

Design work on a future nuclear-powered aircraft carrier being proposed for the French Navy is nearly complete, a senior official of the service confirmed recently.

Captain Thibault Lavernhe, a program officer with the French Navy's "next-generation aircraft carrier" (porte-avions de nouvelle génération; PANG) project, said that the ship is already, "designed on paper," and that he expects the Ministry of Armed Forces to make its final decision on the project before the end of this year.

French defence shipbuilder the Naval Group had received official approval to begin design work on the PANG project in December 2020. The subsequent design work on the proposed carrier was undertaken by the Naval Group and shipbuilder Chantiers de l'Atlantique via a joint venture named MO Porte-Avions.

TechnicAtome has meanwhile been selected to supply the two pressurised water reactors that will constitute the ship's nuclear propulsion system.

The tentative design for the carrier will have a displacement of 78,000 tonnes, a length of approximately 310 metres, and space for an embarked air wing consisting of over 30 multi-role fighter aircraft and helicopters.

The PANG is being designed as a replacement for the French Navy's current aircraft carrier and flagship Charles de Gaulle, which is expected to remain in service until the late 2030s.