NATO Naval Energy Week
By David Scott
French maritime technique has been on full public show with the deployment of the French Service Strike Group (CSG) from November 2024 to April 2025, finishing up an prolonged deployment throughout the Indo-Pacific within the furthest ever Operation Clemenceau.
The French Service Strike Group included varied parts:
FS Charles de Gaulle: nuclear-powered plane provider
FS Forbin: air protection destroyer,
FS Provence: anti-submarine frigate,
FS Alsace: air protection frigate
FS Duguay-Trouin: nuclear-powered assault submarine (SSN)
FS Jacque Chevallier: logistics help ship
Loire-class offshore help and help vessel
The air wing included 22 Rafale Ms, two E-2C Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning (AEW) plane, and three helicopters. The CSG, commanded by Rear Admiral Jacques Mallard, left Toulon on November 28.
The deliberate operation had been denounced within the Chinese language state media, within the World Occasions on November 4, beneath the headline “French plane provider’s deliberate deployment panders to NATO’s enlargement into Asia-Pacific.”
Initially the French CSG was deployed within the Jap Mediterranean, the place France, like Italy, has issues over Russian basing in Libya. It was initially accompanied for escort duties within the Mediterranean by the Italian frigate ITS Virginio Fasan. The CSG then transited the Suez Canal on December 24 and on April 10. The Houthis didn’t intervene within the CSG’s transit on its option to and from the Indian Ocean.
Strategic Pursuits
France is a resident state within the Indo-Pacific, with round 1.5 million French residents inhabiting its abroad territories of Mayotte, La Reunion, New Caledonia and French Polynesia. These components of France are positioned south of the Equator, unfold throughout the southern reaches of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and are key to France having the second largest Unique Financial Zone (EEZ), with 90 p.c of it positioned within the Indo-Pacific. Freedom of navigation and Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOCs) are wider issues for France within the northern reaches of the Indo-Pacific, beneath risk from Houthis within the Purple Sea and China within the South China Sea. Maritime cooperation and maritime partnerships with different international locations has been a selected characteristic of French technique. France’s President led from the highest in visits to Australia and New Caledonia in 2018 the place Macron talked of an “Indo-Pacific axis” (l’axe Indo-Pacific) amongst China-concerned states; amongst which “France is a superb energy (une grande puissance) of the Indo-Pacific.”
French maritime technique for the Indo-Pacific has targeted round three planks. First are its maritime holdings within the southern reaches of the Indo-Pacific (principally Reunion, New Caledonia, and French Polynesia), and the bottom in Djibouti. Second are deployments from metropolitan France. Third are assorted strategic partnerships across the northern reaches of the Indo-Pacific (principally India and Japan) area. The latter two had been very a lot on present with the deployment of its Service Strike Group for Operation Clemenceau.
Maritime pursuits require maritime property to defend and preserve them. Right here the French Navy is the one European navy, together with the British Royal Navy, that has a full spectrum of capabilities, together with nuclear-powered submarines, floor combatants, amphibious ships, maritime patrol plane, and an plane provider.
Service Functionality
The nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle is the flagship of the French Navy. The ship, commissioned in 2001, is catapult-equipped for its three squadrons of Dassault Rafale M warplanes, which additionally permits for operations by U.S. Tremendous Hornets. Its full load displacement is 42,500 tons, surpassing France’s earlier and conventionally-powered plane carriers, the Clemenceau and the Foch, which served from 1961 to 2000 and had a full load displacement of 32,780 tons.
With the profitable development of the Charles de Gaulle, there was preliminary consideration in the course of the 2000s of constructing a second plane provider, to be referred to as the Richelieu, in collaboration with U.Okay. designs getting used for the development of HMS Queen Elizabeth. Nevertheless, that co-development route was deserted in 2008, and the 2013 French Protection White Paper likewise deserted the pursuit of a second French provider. On reflection, would possibly this have been a strategic error in drive design?
As an alternative, consideration ultimately turned to a long-term substitute of the Charles De Gaulle. Macron’s announcement in 2020 was for one more nuclear-powered New Technology Plane Service (Porte-avions de nouvelle technology, or PA-NG) which leaves France as a one-carrier navy. However, this represents a soar in capability, a super-carrier of 75,000 tons displacement, that was additionally longer and wider than the Charles de Gaulle. The primary development and meeting is envisaged between 2032-2035 with preliminary sea trials on nuclear energy in early 2036. If this timetable might be met, then the ship is scheduled to fee in 2038, prepared for the de-commissioning of the Charles De Gaulle.
Work has already began on the brand new French super-carrier. The dedication to this system was demonstrated by the inserting of contracts for lengthy lead objects in April 2024. This included parts of the nuclear propulsion system and preparatory infrastructure work on the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard. Basic Atomics landed a $41.6 million contract in December 2024 to design cutting-edge Electromagnetic Plane Launch System (EMALS) for the envisaged provider.
With regard to common French maritime technique the Charles de Gaulle is a very highly effective plane provider, its nuclear propulsion nature unmatched in Europe the place the U.Okay. (HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales), and Italian plane carriers (ITS Cavour) stay conventionally powered. Solely the U.S. has nuclear-powered plane carriers, 11 in all: CVN-68 to CVN-78, made up of 10 Nimitz-class carriers and one Gerald R. Ford-class provider.
Nevertheless, France stays hampered by its single standing plane provider, highly effective although it’s. China, India, and the U.Okay. have two plane carriers, which permits one to stay energetic whereas the opposite is refitted and maintained. The Charles de Gaulle’s mid-life refit between February 2017 and September 2018 eliminated her from operations for 18-months. Given this limitation, the French Navy’s determination to deploy this sole provider to the Indo-Pacific for 5 months is all of the extra vital.
Goals of Operation Clemenceau
The operation was introduced in November 2024. Rear Admiral Jacques Mallard introduced that the deployment had “4 important goals:”
(1) To start with, contribute to nationwide and European operations within the Purple Sea and within the Indian Ocean. These operations are supposed to strengthen the maritime safety within the space.
(2) To develop interoperability with companions and allies within the Indian and Pacific oceans.
(3) To advertise by way of this deployment a free, open and steady Indo Pacific with our regional companions within the body of worldwide regulation.
(4) Lastly, to contribute to the safety of our inhabitants and of our pursuits within the Indo Pacific the place France is a coastal nation, and it should train its sovereignty on all its abroad territories.
In going throughout the Indian Ocean to the Western Pacific varied workout routines had been carried out with varied companions and allies within the northern reaches of the Indo-Pacific, in impact a give attention to goals 3 and 4. Nevertheless, in truly not deploying to French possessions within the southern reaches, the CSG didn’t notably meet goal 4, the place native forces continued to keep up French presence.
Actions of Operation Clemenceau
Operations with India had been in two phases. The primary was after pleasant port name at Goa, the CSG carried out assorted workout routines off Kochi on January 9. Tactical evolution maneuvers had been carried out by the CSG with INS Mormugao, throughout which the fleet replenishment tanker FNS Jacques Chevallier refueled the Indian vessel; whereas Rafale fighters from the Charles de Gaulle carried out joint anti-aircraft drills with Indian Sukhoi and Jaguar fighters.
Operations within the Indonesia Sea commenced with a historic port name at Jakarta, the primary ever by a French provider. This was adopted by the fifth iteration of the multinational train La Perouse, from January 16-24, by which the French CSG led maritime safety and cooperation drills with the Indian, Australian, Canadian, U.Okay. and U.S. navies. Along with these established companions and allies, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore participated in La Perouse for the primary time.
La Perouse was divided into three parts, within the Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok straits places reflecting the French mission assertion that the train was designed and positioned “to safe strategic maritime strains.” The Malacca Strait part ran from Thursday to Sunday, with the Forbin drilling first with RMN corvette KD Lekir (FSG26), coaching ship KD Gagah Samudera (271), an RMN quick fight boat, and two Royal Malaysian F/A-18D Hornet fighters within the Malacca Strait. These drills included a simulated native air-defense train, a floor firing train, and an advance interdiction and boarding train. The Forbin then performed drills with the Singapore littoral mission vessel RSS Independence within the Singapore Strait, which joins the Malacca Strait’s southern exit. The Jacques Chevalier additionally pulled into Singapore for a logistical cease. Within the Sunda Strait part Indonesia supplied base help for 2 French Navy Atlantique 2 maritime patrol plane (MPAs) taking part in La Perouse, which had arrived on January 11, after a four-day journey from Lann-Bihoue naval air base in France with a logistics stopover in India.
The most important a part of the train, the Lombok Strait part, concerned the CSG drilling with established companions. Commanding officers from Australia’s destroyer HMAS Hobart, the Canadian frigate HMCS Ottawa, India’s destroyer INS Mumbai, the U.Okay. offshore patrol vessel HMS Spey and the U.S. Littoral Fight Ship USS Savannah gathered aboard the provider Charles De Gaulle on Saturday for a pre-exercise assembly. This six-state format was one more permutation inside the versatile Indo-Pacific strategic geometry that has developed in response to China. Additional spin-offs from the Service Strike Group had been the pleasant port name of the Forbin and Provence to Bali from January 28 to February 3, and the Jacque Chevallier to Darwin on February 4.
The following occasion for Operation Clemenceau was the CSG participation in Train Pacific Steller 2025, a Multi-Giant Deck Occasion (MLDE) hosted by the French Navy within the Philippine Sea from February 8-18. For this primary iteration, 14 items from the three taking part nations deployed within the Philippine Sea. The French CSG was joined by the Japanese Self Protection Power’s JS Kaga helicopter provider and the destroyer JS Akizuki, and by the American plane provider USS Carl Vinson, the destroyers USS Princeton, USS Sterett, and USS William P. Lawrence, and one P-8A maritime patrol plane.
This tri-carrier train was visually putting, and the primary of its form between the three states. The high-level coaching drills included anti-submarine warfare, air protection, cross-decking plane, and replenishment at sea workout routines. Cross-deck operations included F/A-18F Tremendous Hornets and a CMV-22B Osprey from Carl Vinson touchdown on and taking off from Charles De Gaulle. In flip, Charles De Gaulle’s embarked Rafale fighters landed on and launched from Carl Vinson. The Jacques Chevalier carried out a replenishment at sea for the Kaga, Princeton, and Sterret.
This high-powered trilateral provider train was criticized within the Chinese language State media, on February 9 within the World Occasions, beneath the headline “Steller 2025 train exhibits Philippine makes an attempt to broaden overseas navy presence in SCS.” The North Korean state-state Korean Central Information Company (KCNA) additionally denounced the trilateral train as involving “overseas invasion forces.” France responded by sending the frigate Alsace and oiler Jacque Chevallier from the CSG to Okinawa on February 13 to assist in monitoring operations in help of U.N. sanctions on North Korea. One of many Atlantique 2 maritime patrol plane dispatched for La Perouse had been additionally despatched on to Okinawa.
The following cease for the CSG was the South China Sea, the place the CSG paid a port name to Subic Bay (Manila) on February 23. Its significance was three-fold. Firstly, this was the primary ever look within the Philippines by a French plane provider. Secondly, this go to was preceded by the biggest bilateral drill between the 2 sides. Thirdly, the exercising with the Philippine Navy befell within the South China Sea waters off Western Luzon within the Philippine EEZ. The exercising concerned the French CSG, the Philippine flagship BRP Jose Rizal and BRP Gregorio del Pilar, in addition to French Rafale and Philippine FA-50PH fighter jets. Their train targeted on aerial and anti-submarine warfare. This was a deliberate sign to Beijing and an equally measure of help to the Philippines which had confronted rising Chinese language strain over the South China Sea throughout 2024. French trilateral exercising with the US and the Philippines within the South China Sea the earlier 12 months had been denounced in China.
The Provence was indifferent from the French CSG to hold out a week-long go to to Ho Chi-Minh Metropolis from March 1-7. Port name visits had been mixed with joint maritime search and rescue missions off the Vietnamese coast.
The ultimate substantive operation for Operation Clemenceau, following pleasant port calls at Singapore and Colombo, was the bilateral Varuna train with India from March 19-22. This concerned twin provider operations between the French Charles de Gaulle CSG and the India INS Vikrant CSG. This second spherical of exercising with India was a sign of the notably robust maritime hyperlinks growing between France and India.
Native Belongings
A part of French maritime technique is to base items in its island territories, and from there deploy across the Indo-Pacific. It is a complement to the periodic extra highly effective deployments from the French metropolitan waters, witnessed with the CSG between November 2024 and March 2025.
FNS Floreal was dispatched for CTF-150 operation within the Arabian Sea, for Eagle Claw One and Eagle Claw Two in November and December 2024, alongside Pakistan’s PNS Zulfiquar. Even because the CSG was working within the Western Pacific in Pacific Steller, the French frigate FNS Vendemiaire (primarily based at New Caledonia) docked in Denpasar, Bali, on February 14 as a part of its participation within the multilateral train Komodo hosted by the Indonesian Navy from February 14-17. Spring 2025 witnessed the Prairial visiting varied locations within the South Pacific, together with the Cook dinner Islands on February 27, whose authorities welcomed the go to as “strengthening regional safety efforts” and demonstrating “Pacific solidarity.” The context for that is Chinese language penetration of South Pacific island states. In a tidy native division of labor, the 2-yearly Southern Cross train hosted by France at Wallis and Futuna Islands from April 22 to Might 3 introduced collectively forces from Fiji, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand. Colonel Frederic Puchois, Chief of the Joint Workers in New Caledonia introduced its objective was to check French “capability to venture forces” from New Caledonia.
Political Underpinnings
The CSG deployment was not solely complemented by ongoing use of native French property, but additionally given political help from the best stage throughout 2025. In January Macron introduced on the Ambassadors’ Convention that the Indo-Pacific “is clearly a precedence for us.” Ministers additionally maintained this help.
India enjoys a really excessive profile for France, already indicated by the 2 rounds of workout routines held by the CSG with India, in January and March. Strategic convergence was mirrored within the seventh India France Maritime Cooperation Dialogue held in New Delhi on January 14. It was co-chaired by Shri Pavan Kapoor, Deputy Nationwide Safety Advisor and Alice Rufo, Director Basic for Worldwide Relations and Technique, Ministry for the Armed Forces. Their Joint Declaration recorded their widespread curiosity in freedom of navigation and have to “help free and safe entry to sea lanes of communication.”
On January 28, the French Service Strike Group made a port name to Jakarta, to guide the La Perouse train. Three days later, on January 31, the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sebastien Lecornu, flew into Jakarta to fulfill with President Prabowo Subianto, Indonesian Protection Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, and Overseas Minister Sugiono. Within the Philippines, the French Joint Commander for Asia Pacific, Rear Admiral Guillaume Pinget, met with Lt. Gen. Jimmy Larida, Performing Chief of Workers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon Metropolis on February 13, to push ahead a Reciprocal Entry Settlement (RAA). The French Overseas Minister’s go to Jean-Noel Barrot’s go to to Indonesia on March 26 introduced their signing of the Indo-Pacific Port Safety Undertaking. Lastly, President Macron’s Keynote Deal with on the IIIS Shangri La Dialogue on 30 Might, made throughout his state go to to Indonesia, re-emphasized French curiosity and dedication to the Indo-Pacific.
The French CSG deployment suits into this sample of rising European maritime involvement within the Indo-Pacific in the course of the previous few years. Certainly, the 2023 U.Okay.-France Summit had agreed on “the sequencing of extra persistent European provider strike group presence within the Indo-Pacific.” On this vein, the Italian CSG deployment within the second half of 2024 was adopted by French CSG deployment within the first half of 2025 and instantly adopted by U.Okay. deployment within the second half of 2025. The French CSG group might be seen as a “drive multiplier” within the Indo-Pacific, notably within the occasion of a U.S.-China confrontation.
Uncertainties
It stays to be seen how far the downturn in U.S.-Europe cooperation witnessed in splits over Ukraine arising in Spring 2025 will have an effect on European juggling of sources between the European and Indo-Pacific theaters. With Macron’s deal with on March 5 figuring out Russia as a “risk to France and to Europe,” would possibly France now give attention to deploying in European waters reasonably than throughout the Indo-Pacific? In gentle of rising issues about Russia and alerts of American retrenchment from Europe, there could also be a shift in the direction of larger French give attention to the Mediterranean, given Russian affect in Libya, and as much as the Black Sea, in gentle of Russia’s persevering with conflict in opposition to Ukraine. Nevertheless, and maybe crucially, France’s resident sovereignty and related EEZ give France a seamless anchor within the Indo-Pacific, and pursuits to keep up, that different European actors don’t have.
Dr. David Scott is an affiliate member of the Corbett Centre for Maritime Coverage Research. A prolific author on Indo-Pacific maritime geopolitics, he might be contacted at [email protected].
Featured Picture: April 25, 2024 – The French Navy provider Charles de Gaulle off the coast of Toulon. (NATO picture)
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