French Parliament unanimously vote to officially launch the studies to build a 2nd Sister-Ship NewGen Nuclear Aircraft Carrier (EMALS/AAG) 83.000 Tons PANG.

8 comments

  2. Not unanimously. 1 MP (Green party) voted against but that’s me being nitpicky lol. It was surprisingly a slam dunk of a vote. That came out of nowhere… Even all the LFI MPs present voted for it despite LFI originally questioning the need of a successor to the Charles de Gaulle and the PANG program. What’s happening?!

    We won’t know for sure if a second one will be built until 2028 but the chances of it happening went from 0 to 50% to me (well yeah, I am the pessimistic type even if this is definitely good news). I believe there is a chance now because what the Parliament voted for isn’t about a potential second carrier strike group. One of the MPs responsible for this piece of legislation said it is only about a 2nd CVN and shouldn’t be interpreted any other way because the naval expansion needed for 2 carrier strike groups would be too challenging to pull off financially. They are being honest about it, which makes the eventuality of 2 PANG more credible. If we’re going to spend more than €10 billion on a CVN, we might as well maximize the program by having a second one.

    I thought the chances of a second carrier were close to zero because I had multiple additional destroyers, frigates, SSNs and aircraft (without mentioning manpower) in mind considering the current format.

    If there is a second carrier, from what I understood from this law, it would be under the same format as the one in the days of the Clemenceau and Foch: 2 aircraft carriers (in rotation) but a single carrier strike group. This means we won’t need a second escort fleet beyond perhaps a few more destroyers in the class that will succeed the 2 Horizon-class ships, which was already the plan anyway IIRC. If they hadn’t denied the two carrier strike groups circlejerk on Twitter right away when people began interpreting the news that way, it would’ve been 100% clear they were not serious about it, especially when France is still dead set on financing a full spectrum military model instead of prioritizing a domain of action like Poland.

  3. Source

    [https://twitter.com/JCLarsonneur/status/1661805521517568000?s=20](https://twitter.com/JCLarsonneur/status/1661805521517568000?s=20)

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    We also learned 3 days ago in a cross parliamentary hearing(Senate+National Parliament with Private Defense Industries) that Naval Group , Thales , TechnicAtome alongside Chantier de l’Atlantique have pooled together in a collective funds and set aside 1.1 Billions Euros of theirs own investment for the potential order of that 2nd PANG.

    Also France will join the Joint led Belgium-Dutch mine countermeasure ship project.

    France will also order 4 additional light military carrier ship for theitrs overseas territories.

    [https://twitter.com/JL_Thieriot/status/1662002715730296833?s=20](https://twitter.com/JL_Thieriot/status/1662002715730296833?s=20)

    European Patrol Corvette program in order to facilitate and fasten the regulatory , adminitrative and financial to clear the path and give a clear view to the Italains team and industrial for hthe upcomming phases of development.

  7. When one is down for maintenance or repairs the other carrier can deploy. That way France has at least one carrier ready anytime of the year.

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