News surrounding France’s new warship endeavor is significant.
French officials recently divulged that their upcoming supercarrier will sport even greater enhancements than initially outlined. The future Porte-avions de nouvelle génération will enter service with the French Navy by the late 2030s and is set to replace the European nation’s Charles de Gaulle carrier.
France’s Porte-avions de Nouvelle Supercarrier
News surrounding France’s new warship endeavor is significant, especially considering France is the only nation other than the United States that operates a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Over the summer, a French Navy official revealed renderings of what the new supercarrier’s air wing could achieve. At the Combined Naval Event, conducted under Chatham House rules, three images were displayed. They depicted the existing Rafale M multirole fighter and the E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft, positioned on the flight deck next to rotary-wing drones. While the unmanned aerial vehicles appear to be the Airbus Helicopters VSR700 in the renderings, these drones may serve as a representation for upcoming autonomous platforms.
France’s enhancements to its Porte-avions do not end with the incorporation of highly specialized support drones as part of its air wing. French officials also detailed last month their plans to procure a third Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapult track from the United States. According to the 2026 draft budget document released in October, “funding for the third catapult track and the data-centric upgrade of the Combat Management System (CMS) in its incremental development approach is provided under the additional funding requested by the President of the Republic during his speech on July 13, 2025.” As French president Emmanuel Macron spelled out, “To be free in this world, we need to be feared.” The supercarrier with EMALS would certainly contribute to this goal. Specifically, the EMALS combined with the new Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) will enable the French carrier to launch more on the Charles de Gaulle.
How Does Porte-avions de Nouvelle Compare to the Ford-class?
While the Porte-avions de nouvelle is expected to play a leading role in carrier power projection capabilities across the globe, the supercarrier will not represent the only “next-gen” warship in service. The US Navy already fields the USS Gerald R. Ford, the lead ship of its newest Ford-class of aircraft carriers. Equipped with technologies and capabilities that make it more efficient than its Nimitz predecessor, the Ford carriers are truly top-notch. Perhaps most significantly, these warships will feature EMALS and AAGs, which will allow them to launch 25 percent more sorties than previous classes. Additionally, the Ford carriers are able to generate triple the amount of electrical power as the Nimitz ships due to their cutting-edge Bechtel A1B reactor. USS Ford has already been deployed to the United States Central Command area of operations and is currently transiting the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’s anti-drug trafficking strategy.
While France’s upcoming supercarrier will undoubtedly be top-of-the-line, the US Navy is planning to introduce an additional nine Ford-class ships over the next decade, and for this reason, it will have an edge over its Western ally.
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin. Carlin has over 1,000 articles published over the last several years on various defense issues.
Image: DVIDS.
