In recent months, a part of the German political class, the most Europhile, seems particularly prolix in terms of European defense cooperation project, and in particular concerning Franco-German cooperation. Sometimes the idea is clearly missed, as when the finance minister Olaf Sholtz of the SPD party, ally of the CDU of Angela Merkel, proposed that France give up its seat as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to the European Union, an idea as incongruous as it is legally impossible. Angela Merkel, she spoke in favor of a European army proposed by E. Macron, in an address to the European Parliament on November 13, 2018.
Civil society also seems to be taking up the subject. Thus, during the Munich Security Forum 2019, the highly respected chairman of the committee WolfIschinger gang, proposed to Germany and Europe to put themselves under the protection of the French nuclear deterrent.
On March 10, the new president of the CDU, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who replaces Angela Merkel at the head of the German right-wing government party, proposed in the major daily Die Welt, to France and Germany, to implement an aircraft carrier at European level.
And as with previous German overtures, French reactions, whether from politicians questioned on the subject or in the Defense community, are overwhelmingly hostile to this idea.
It must be said that, among all European countries, France is, with Great Britain, the country which best masters naval aviation operations, its constraints, and the contexts which surround them. Thus, in many cases, the use of the aircraft carrier was required at very short notice, over unsecured areas, with particularly dense fog of war. This was the case in Libya as in Syria, or in Lebanon before that.
However, Germany is not legally equipped to respond to these very short challenges, and its repeated delays in intervening seem contradictory to the use of an aircraft carrier, such as France has used the Charles de Gaulle for 20 years.
The pooling of the constituent resources of the naval air group seems to be more favored by public opinion, as is the case for the Clémenceau mission which has just begun, the French PAN being escorted, beyond the FREMM Provence and the FDA Forbin, alternately by a Danish and Portuguese frigate, and British and American units.
So, is the idea of ​​a Franco-German, or European, aircraft carrier meaningless? Far from it !
As is often the case in this type of situation, the response given is above all dictated by critical thinking, conditioned by past difficulties. How can we imagine the use of a Franco-German aircraft carrier when we are unable to intervene jointly in Africa or the Middle East?
Two biases distort the perception of the problem:
- the first assumes that if an aircraft carrier is Franco-German, France will no longer have a national aircraft carrier. This bias was also largely responsible for the negative reactions to the concept of a European army, which did not imply the replacement of national armies, and which was nevertheless interpreted in this way by the majority.
- The second bias assumes that the future will be similar to the past. If, in the past, the aircraft carrier was mainly used in the Middle East and North Africa, it is natural to assume that this will be its function in the future, which is obviously very unlikely. With the massive rearmament of Russia, but also of China, Pakistan, and other countries, the missions of the aircraft carrier could quickly evolve towards much more consensual needs between France and Germany, to protect by example, circulation in the North Atlantic, or in the Pacific and Indian Ocean.
Once we ignore these two reading biases, the hypothesis of one European aircraft carrier, or even two, since we know that two aircraft carriers are needed to maintain operational permanence, becomes much more attractive. Because it is a question of imagining not what we will not be able to do, but what will then be possible to do, whereas this is not possible today, with the unique Charles de Gaulle.
Such a project would also be particularly unifying in the construction of Defense Europe, with the building becoming, in some ways, the very symbol of this construction. However, as we know, great ambitions require strong symbols. And what is stronger than seeing an aircraft carrier bearing the European flag positioning itself in a contested naval zone to preserve the interests of all Europeans?
Finally, it must be remembered that today, only the STX, Naval Groupe and Dassault Aviation shipyards have specific know-how in Europe for the design, implementation and maintenance of an onboard naval aviation force. Therefore, one or more European aircraft carriers would naturally benefit industry, and employment, in the country.
As we can see, the idea of ​​one (or more) Franco-German or European aircraft carriers would be far from being as ridiculous as one might believe at first glance. This would, obviously, be a project that was both complex, fraught with pitfalls, and long. But when, in the history of the creation of Europe, has such an opportunity ever presented itself? And if we don't grasp it, will it ever arise again? It's worth exploring the idea a little, isn't it?