The Charles de Gaulle, a French aircraft carrier with 1,850 sailors on board, has been deployed in the eastern Mediterranean since early March due to the outbreak of war between Israel and the United States with Iran. “France did not trigger this conflict, it is not involved. But we act as a peace power, as a power of balance. That’s the strict framework in which we operate today,” said Emmanuel Macron on March 9th.
Three weeks after its deployment, the flagship of the French Navy is still in the eastern Mediterranean, somewhere off the coast of Crete. It monitors the area, provides information on what is happening in the sky and on the sea. Its flight deck, with its 20 embarked Rafales, is constantly busy. The pilots take off and land day and night. The French navy’s flagship does not engage in combat against Iran, but seeks to deter and prevent Tehran’s attacks on allied countries, including European ones like Cyprus.
Since its arrival, the vessel has not been targeted by a missile or a drone fired by Iran. Its mission remains purely defensive. The objective is also to ensure the protection of French interests in the Middle East, its 400,000 nationals, and the boats sailing in the area.
Surrounded by a protective bubble, the Charles de Gaulle is not alone in the escalation of conflict in the Middle East. It is escorted by several warships, the GAN – the naval air group. For this mission, it is also accompanied by three foreign frigates, Spanish, Irish, and Italian.
It is essential to mention a protection bubble extending hundreds of kilometers around the Charles de Gaulle. This protection is provided in the air by surveillance and intelligence aircraft, at sea by defense ships equipped with radars and missiles, as well as specialized patrol boats in anti-submarine warfare, including sonars. Finally, a French attack nuclear submarine, an essential striking tool, operates near the aircraft carrier without ever surfacing.
Today, France and around twenty countries, including France, are ready to contribute to the necessary efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The Charles de Gaulle was designed to undertake multiple missions and could very well be tasked with securing the Strait of Hormuz, the maritime corridor along the Iranian coast, to resume traffic.
The aircraft carrier could escort the passage of tankers and container ships, offering its intelligence capabilities. The Charles de Gaulle allows monitoring activities thousands of kilometers around. This is a mission that its predecessor, the Clemenceau, accomplished about forty years ago during the tanker war. At that time, Iran was attacking merchant ships in the Persian Gulf. However, President Emmanuel Macron has emphasized that the French aircraft carrier will not act alone, only within an international coalition, and once hostilities have ceased.
