France planning new aircraft carrier

There are only 22 aircraft carriers in service worldwide. Safe for the US, no country has more than two of them at the moment. A single aircraft carrier can do a lot for military power and power projection.

I thought that missile tech like the DF-21 had effectively rendered carriers obsolete against equiv-tech adversaries.<p>&amp; I would expect many non equivalent adversaries to be able to catch up by 2038, rendering these things sitting ducks even when being used for force projection against people in caves.

This seems like an odd decision given recent developments in the area of supersonic missiles. China and Russia seem to have to technology to easily sink carriers from quite a distance. Aircraft carriers are almost obsolete.

At 83000 metric tons, this will be second only to the American supercarriers (Nimitz class and Ford class at 110000 tons). Even the British Queen Elizabeth class is smaller at just 72000 tons.

Why spending money in army? Even if it&#x27;s nuclear powered, it involves a lot of pollution for maintaining this kind of huge ship. I&#x27;m French and sad that our taxes go in this and not useful things

In service by 2038 huh? Let&#x27;s hope all the software is 64-bit

France is very indebted country and kind of can&#x27;t afford making stuff like that at the moment.

Making this a top comment, on why:<p>They kind of got embarrassed by the Turkish navy, as they got &#x27;checked&#x27;, while trying to blockade the Turkish aid to one of the Lybian factions. The Lybian civil war is a war were there are no good vs bad guys, just different factions. The French backed one is losing. Also with the Turkish vs. Greece conflict, France sided with the Greeks, yet they realized they couldn&#x27;t help much as if a conflict was to happen near Turkish shores they would lose, and Turkey would be able to inflict massive loses.<p>TLDR: France doesn&#x27;t have real power projection capabilities. France realized their navy is not up to par. It is like a lap dog that is all bark, but doesn&#x27;t have any power to bite, and they would lose political soft power as well:<p>After Turkish incident, France suspends role in NATO naval mission <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;us-libya-security-france-nato&#x2F;after-turkish-incident-france-suspends-role-in-nato-naval-mission-idUSKBN2425IY" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;us-libya-security-france-nat...</a><p>France blasts ‘extremely aggressive’ Turkish intervention against NATO mission targeting Libyan arms<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.france24.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;20200617-france-blasts-extremely-aggressive-turkish-intervention-against-nato-mission-targeting-libyan-arms" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.france24.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;20200617-france-blasts-extremely...</a><p>Turkey beats the french in Libya’s war &#x2F;&#x2F; The U.N. dithers and Russia withers while Erdoğan flexes his Islamic muscle<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amimagazine.org&#x2F;2020&#x2F;07&#x2F;15&#x2F;turkey-beats-the-french-in-libyas-war&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amimagazine.org&#x2F;2020&#x2F;07&#x2F;15&#x2F;turkey-beats-the-fren...</a>

&gt; &quot;Building nuclear propulsion for our next aircraft carrier is crucial for France to maintain the unique skills of its nuclear industry.&quot;<p>Meaning that&#x27;s a pork project for their nuclear industry.<p>Also, I fail to see what they hope to accomplish with just one carrier.