Originally Posted by
Dysonsphere
France didn't send its (only) carrier. OK, it's under (light) maintenance
As I recall its almost allways under some form of maintence as the thing hardly ever works. Was very poor design and build.
Well, Sir, maybe you should review your recollections.
Unless I'm very much mistaken, she participated to operations in Indian Ocean, Gulf (waving the flag, Afghan ops), Arabian Sea (counter piracy) in recent years. In 2011, just after being back from a several months deployment, she was able to sail off again to join the ops off the costs of Libya.
Admitedly, being more or less a prototype, she had her share of issues, most were light, some were serious. Admitedly, being the sole French carrier, when she's off, French carrier capability is off.
Now, perhaps we should compare with other european navies? How did France's neighbours "things" recently?
