French considering retiring 3 year old nuclear carrier

France is considering quietly retiring their new nuclear powered aircraft carrier and joining with Britain to buy a new carrier of British design. Actually, the French had planned to built a second nuclear powered carrier, but they are having so many problems with the first one that they are quite reluctant about building a second of the same design. Britain is building two 50,000 ton conventionally powered carriers, at a cost of $2.5 billion each. France would order a third of this class, and bring down the cost of all three a bit.

Now, this is hilarious on several fronts. First, they cannot even build a nuclear carrier that works more than ever.

Flaws in the "de Gaulle" have led to the use of propellers from it predecessor, the "Foch," because the ones built for "de Gaulle" never worked right. Worse, the nuclear reactor installation was done poorly, exposing the engine crew to five times the allowable annual dose of radiation. There were also problems with the design of the deck, making it impossible to operate the E-2 radar aircraft that are essential to defending the ship and controlling offensive operations. Many other key components of the ship did not work correctly, and the carrier has been under constant repair and modification.

Finally, they are looking to the Brits to help them. You have to love the frogs. They always come back when they need something.

France will always be there when she needs you.

DGB

much like a telemarketer.

http://frenchnavy.free.fr/ships/aircraft-carrier/charles-de-gaulle/images/cdg-001.jpg

That picture looks like a clip from Classic Thunderbirds...

http://www.thunderbirdsonline.com/site/

What a colossal waste of money! Who designed the da-n boat anyway? They should be tarred and feathered on national TV.

Geez.

Is that rust I see on the deck? TO the scrapers me hearties. YO HO!

Now, Valerie,

There were some money saving procedures being done there! The engine crews doubled as deck lanterns at night.

The "installation was done poorly"?! I can see hanging a door a little off, but a nuclear reactor?! Boggles the mind.

The point is that France is one of the only country in the world to owns nukes, nuclear submarines, and now nuclear aircraft carrier.

France is consequently one of the most powerful country ever existing on earth. And that disturbs the small ambitions of the WASP world...

France is perfectly able to build alone a second nuclear aircraft carrier. They consider only the partipation of Brits as a way to lower the global cost, and also to enter the Brits Navy Market. Our electronics firms operating on Military makert are excellent.

Second, for the people here green in Shipbuilding industry, 11 years to build such a carrier is pretty short, as mostly such projects last 15 years.
For example, the US navy is busy with the DDX project, a light frigate project, until 2010, and they started in 1995. First boat will be deliverd in 2010.
So we can all recongnize here the better know-how of French militaryyyards, compared to the poorly managed US Navy yards, that only survive thanks to federal subventions additionally.

God bless our Navy, their men, and their family.

Marc

What planet are you on? SHORT? Eleven years to build a carrier (and it still doesn't work)?!?

The USS Ronald Reagan, arguably the most advanced carrier in the world, took 8 years to build. That's eight, three less than eleven. Nearly half the fifteen you assert it takes. Oh, It works too!

Speaking about how ridiculous French aircraft carriers make the whole country look, I guess you all have heard about the problems of the now-decommissioned Clémenceau aircraft carrier by now.

Well, problems are far from over. And, apparently France may be "perfectly able to build alone a second nuclear aircraft carrier", according to Marc Levis, but she cannot tie it down real tight when violent floods are forecast.

The aircraft carrier, Clemenceau, which is anchored off Hyeres waiting to be scrapped, broke its moorings in the storms and had to be retrieved by a tug.

The aircraft carrier was adrift for several hours. Just like its country has been for several years.

Folk,

M. Levis is from no other planet but this one. I do not believe him to be the chauvinist he plays at being, he simply likes posting outré commentary for the attention it gets him.

Ridiculous statements like:

"So we can all recongnize here the better know-how of French militaryyyards, compared to the poorly managed US Navy yards, that only survive thanks to federal subventions additionally."

are meant to be ridiculous. M. Levis, not gifted with forensic aptitude or much in the way of nuance, has no intention of defending this or any other claim. He is here to promote himself as the thread topic. For those who have been in the Pave threads awhile, M. Levis' repetoire of "France über alles" shtick is well-known and tired.

M. Levis has had quite a run for his money in these threads, but it is perhaps time to leave him to his pranking and wait for some intelligent opposition. Well, that may not be forthcoming. But the world is a big place and hope abounds.

DGB

In the area of aircraft carriers it seems to me the amount of time in construction is a secondary issue. You want to make sure the thing works first.
Design flaws like an inability to launch your surveilance aircraft are caused by hasty construction deadlines.
Phrenchmen need to take a deep breath. Slow down. Then look at the problem from the perspective of what do you want the carrier to do.

I imagine the Phrench want a carrier that can project airplanes over Ivorians heads to quell their desire for true independance. In this case the DeGualle will do just fine. Your aircrews can do fly overs without sophisticated antimissle radar cover. All they need to is read a map.

If your worried that some stray exocets might be in rebel hands(or even government, since Ivorians on neither side are too fond), simply check your records to find out which terrorist org.s you have been dealing them to. Then send some Phrench spys to make an audit. If the two numbers match, nothing to worry about.

If the numbers don't match however...

"It's not stupid, it's advaaanced."

I was sitting here, wondering how someone can be proud of a ship that kills its crew. The only thing that came to mind is that the French consider soldiers (and sailors) to be disposable and therefore not relevant.

... and then everything made sense.

Marc, at least you're consistant. When confronted with the poor performance of the DeGualle, you reflexively find a related poor performance in the US... and vola, problem solved! Textbook French engineering and problem solving.

In America the Defence Dept. first considers what sort of capabilities they want from a carrier. Then they send this list of capabilities to a design firms who make blueprints. The submitted designs are mulled over until a winning design is found.
Then the design is sent to private manufacturers not to Government manufacturers, because when it is done we want it to work.(this is the step I think the French f..ed up on with the Degaulle)
The private ship yards submit bids. The Government accepts the winning bid then submits an appropriation to Congress.
All of this stuff might take years. Years before one weld is made on a ship. Our method is born out by the results. 14 Capital ship carriers and the ability to project American force to all corners of the globe.
All Naval vessels are Government contracts, so Marcs comment about US subsidized ship builders is puzzling.

Well, may be I would be able to laugh with you about this "abattoir de la Villette flottant" if I was not a petty Frenchman thinking about his pocket :{
But this idea about doing on with the Brits sound good. After all when the best ennemies on the world work together, the results are not that crap. Just compare with what can come out from working with Americans...

Pierre

I'm not sure, was that an endorcement for America?
Did you see Pirates of the Caribbean, starring defacto Frenchman, with US tags, Johnny Dieppe.

DVD is a marvel. You have the choice to watch the movie in English, Spanish, German, French, or American. With any combination of subtitles if you wish.
So lets say your wanting to bone up on written English. You click French spoken with English subtitle. Or visa versa if you want to bone up on written French.
Or you can grap some popcorn and just enjoy the movie.

Drink up me hearties, Yo Ho

Indeed, the trick using subtitles works. During one year I worked in the Netherlands. No way to understand a movie in Dutch, but reading Dutch subtitle for a French or English movie help a lot.

Don't worry anyway if you plane a visit in Netherlands, they almost all speak English.

The Ronnie Reagan did not take 8 years to build. Newport News can crank out a Nimitz class carrier in less than 3 years. And that is with their horrid workers and terrible management. Also, that is taking into account that they convinced the US Navy that they need to build every new Nimitz class carrier using the original plans and then doing all the upgrades after the carrier is complete. But no matter how bad NNS&DD is, I would never set foot on a frog ship, ever. And CVN-65 USS Enterprise owns all those fat ass Nimitz class.

So, was a success?

Had to be given away. Required huge number of hours of maintenance per hour flown.. Oh yeah, these are all successful on Eurotrash terms.

Forget your ideas that the French, unable to build their own aircraft carrier would need to call the Brits for help…since truth is far closer to the exact opposite !
I remember a few month ago, when Britain’s MoD was about to choose between France’s Thales or GB’s BAE which one would build the 2 new AC : Thales was seen as the likely winner by the international press ! In fact, their superiority was so clear that BAE and its supporters started a great (and almost desesperate) lobbying battle : arguments were about the thousands of jobs the british economy would lose, the british expertise that would disappear… and of course Britain’s prestige,no honnor, was at stake: the royal navy’s future jewels can’t be built by the French ! No sir ! Not even in one’s nightmares !

And finally, the decision was to cut the pear in two: BAE would assume the greatest part in building the aircraft carriers designed by…Thales !

You may find it suspect, so I searched and found a british article to back my sayings.

Concerning the CdG, its reputation is terrible in France, due to the numerous problems that occurred very soon after its “mise en service”. That’s history now, according to what I heard but its reputation is already (irremedially?) stained and it’s a good source for jokes in France (the fact remains that it was far more expensive than expected).

Reminds me of the old joke:
Question: "How do you sink a French ship?"
Answer: "Put it in the water."

LATEST ANSWERS GIVEN BY YOUESSANS POLLED

QUESTIONS ASKED - ANSWERED "YES"* (in %) - ANSWERED "NO"* (in %) - COULDN'T OR WOULDN'T ANSWER* (in %)

*Note for Unitedstatish only: total = 100 % ("yes" + "no" + "couldn't or wouldn't answer")

Do you think you are intelligent ?

Yes: 03 - No : 29 - CoWA: 68.

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Is Kate Bush the current president of the youessey ?

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Yes: 98 - No : 00 - CoWA: 02.

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Read carefully.
A bear, a dolphin & a crocodile are chatting about their plans for the next holidays. "My family plan to go to the north pole. You know: big furs...", says the bear. "Well, you know, with our flippers I think we'll go to the Pacific ocean", says the dolphin. Says the crocodile: "You know, my wife has a big mouth and so have my kids. My own mouth is even bigger. That's why we're going to spend our holidays in the youessey".

Have you understood the joke ?

Yes: 02 - No : 84 - CoWA: 14.

Would you appreciate to try to understand a similar joke ?

Yes: 41 - No : 04 - CoWA: 55.

Read carefully.
A bear, a dolphin & a hippo are chatting about their plans for the next holidays. "My family plan to go to the north pole. You know: big furs...", says the bear. "Well, you know, with our flippers I think we'll go to the Pacific ocean", says the dolphin. Says the hippo: "You know, I am so fat, I look terrribly ugly, I've got such a big mouth, I stink, I am such a fucking dumb retard and I love to wallow in the mud. That's why I'm going to spend my holidays in Florida".

Have you understood the joke ?

Yes: 02 - No : 94 - CoWA: 04.

Did you know that the youessans are hippos' perfect doubles ?

Yes: 77 - No : 04 - CoWA: 19.

Do you know why ?

Yes: 01 - No : 95 - CoWA: 04.

Do you want to know why ?

Yes: 99 - No : 01 - CoWA: 00.

Read carefully.
Because the youessans, too, have very fat bodies, they, too, have very small legs & they, too, have big mouthes.

Have you understood the joke ?


Yes: 02 - No : 94 - CoWA: 04.

Congratulations lestat, you ridiculized the poster of this pseudo news !

Brits are unable to build an aircraft, tht's the truth; and they need France to build one.

that's so goooddddd.

Gunsniper:

I loved your thought on it and have posted according. It does look like a Thunderbird vehicle.

Full credit to you.

http://www.nukevet.com/mt/archives/003648.html#003648

Hello brb,

Had to be given away. Required huge number of hours of maintenance per hour flown.. Oh yeah, these are all successful on Eurotrash terms.

Concorde went into service on 1969, crashed once in 2000 and was retired in 2003 after 34 years service.

If that's a failure, it's a LONG failure. Nobody did better or simply as well in this domain.

******BREAKING NEWS******BREAKING NEWS******BREAKING NEWS******BREAKING NEWS******BREAKING NEWS******BREAKING NEWS******BREAKING NEWS******BREAKING NEWS******BREAKING NEWS******BREAKING NEWS******

CHIRAC AGREED TO SEND 200.000 FRENCH TROOPS TO BAIL OUT YOUESSAN “ARMY” HIT BY MASSIVE DESERTIONS

Our special correspondent in Paris reports.

French officials are alarmed by the catastrophic news coming from Iraq: Unitedstatish "soldiers" are escaping from Iraq under the guise of Kurdish citizens, wearing the famous Iraqi and Arab al-dashdasha (loose headdress) which has become much sought-after recently, Iraqis told FoxNews. His Excellency Jean-David Levitte, France’s ambassador to the youess, was lately ordered to return to France immediately by the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac. Mr Levitte unconvincingly denied leaking that President Chirac was “infuriated” that the French ”had to bail the youess out for a third time in less than 250 years” ---referring to the independence granted by the French Army to the British insurgents and to the Louisiana purchase wanted by Paris to help nascent youessan agriculture and stop starvation. According to press leaks, Mr Chirac nonetheless admitted that he wouldn’t ”wait until all those cheeseburger-eatin’ desertin’ she-boons are hiding somewhere in Turkey” to lend a helping hand to the desperate unitedstatish officials. An aid to Mrs Michèle Alliot-Marie, Minister of Defence, aired that President Chirac was prepared to send a 200.000-strong expeditionary force to replace deserting youessans. The aid told Mrs Alliot-Marie did nothing to hide her ”annoyance” at youessan ”staggering incompetence ” and ”utter inaptitude ”. She allegedly even mentioned that ”the French are successful in Congo-Zaïre the size of which is four times bigger than that of France while the youessey is simply incapable of taking charge of Iraq which is 22 times smaller. This is starting to get ridiculous !”.

Authorised sources from Vichyngton D.C. disclosed that Obersturmführer John Ashcroft recently arranged a secret trip to the French capital for Donald Rumsfeld. French Authorities have issued a forged Pakistani passport under the fake name of “Donallahda Ben Rimsfild” to camouflage Rumsfeld’s top-secret flight to Paris. Besides those humiliating measures, Mrs Ben Rimsfild had to put a burka on before she was allowed on board in an Air France’s Airbus for Paris. ”The burka was needed to guarantee anonymity to Mr Rumsfeld”, said Jean-Cyril Spinetta, Air France’s CEO, “It was intended as neither a persecutory manœuvre nor a vicious intrigue. It was a mere self-explaining precautionary step”. At her arrival to Charles-de-Gaulle airport, Mrs Ben Rimsfild was swiftly pushed in a black-glassed, bullet-proof luxury Renault that rushed to the Quai d’Orsay ---the office of Mr Dominique de Villepin, Minister of Foreign Affairs. After a three-hour fifty-minute wait in the sumptuously furnished anteroom to de Villepin’s austere cabinet, Mrs Ben Rimsfild was eventually asked in. Profoundly embarrassed by Mrs Ben Rimsfild’s utter impropriety, Mr de Villepin urged the youessan to unveil. Which (s)he did ---suddenly bursting into tears and yelling hysterically: ”You MUST help us out ! You MUST bail us out ! I can’t take it anymore…”. Disconcerted by such an obvious lack of sang-froid, de Villepin spouted comforting words to Mrs Ben Rimsfild that he would see to it that President Chirac makes a telephone call to Bush, and then he saw the whining nuisance off at his cabinet’s mahogany doors.

Unfortunately French concerns about unitedstatish impotence are not limited to diplomatic and military issues. Said Francis Mer, France’s Minister of Economy and Finance: ”The French are happy to help the youessey overcome those very sad times” ---a polite allusion to the disastrous $ 31.250.000.000.000 deficit caused by unitedstatish households, companies and federal government. Mr Mer explained that the “fine” the Californian Attorney General “demanded” from the Crédit Lyonnais ---a top-ranking French-owned bank--- and from French Authorities ”was actually a secret bilateral agreement”. To the great despair of demoralised youess financial “markets”, the Crédit Lyonnais acquired Executive Life (an ailing unitedstatish insurance company) a few years ago. Upon a formal request by Mrs Roselyne Bachelot, Minister of Environment and Ecology, Mr Mer agreed to inject fresh money ($ 475.000.000) into the youess “economy” ”to help California hire more fire-fighters so that new blazes could be extinguished more rapidly”. Mr Mer also insisted that the extra subsidy ”should be allocated to the 60.000.000 youessans who still don’t enjoy Social Security, a fundamental right of unitedstatish citizens”. Asked whether the $-475.000.000 subsidy was truly considered a “fine” by the French government, Mr Mer simply left without answering ---a clumsy attempt to appear diplomatic. Mrs Bachelot ---an inveterate leaker--- later floated that the subsidy was in reality categorised as “foreign emergency aid” according to the French public budget system, although ”we are eager to show utmost consideration towards our unlucky, pitiful unitedstatish friends”.

Sorry in advance if my English is not that good. I spent a few years in the US but that was a long time ago. There, my ex girlfriend mother was dying of cancer and could not pay for hospital bills and medicines. She was poor and lived in a trailer park, a little bit outside of Salem MA. I did not get to know her very much as she died a few weeks after I arrived in the US. I do not have much to say except that "civilized" is not exactly the first word that comes to my mind when I think of the US.

I was looking for the meaning of "flame war" and I found this page through google. Let me tell you that in the light of what I know from the US, I found many of your comments here pretty much pathetic...

Sounds often like a terminally ill patient having fun of the cold of someone else...