Rear Admiral Jacques Mallard – Commander of the French CSG – introduced the mission Clemenceau 2025 that will take the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its escort to the Pacific. The French CSG also called TF 473 will sail through the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea for a 6 months (or so) mission before heading back.
Aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is almost ready to set sails after an intense phase of training for the sailors and qualifications for the new Rafale and Hawkeye pilots that took place in September. The departure date was not specified but is said to be “very soon”.
At a time where territorial disputes get more intense in the Indo-Pacific, especially in the South China Sea, the French CSG is meant to reaffirms the French presence in the area as France owns overseas territories there, and to stress the need for an open and free Indo Pacific.
“This deployment has 4 main objectives. First of all, contribute to national and European operations in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean. These operations are meant to strengthen the maritime security in the area. […] To develop interoperability with partners and allies in the Indian and Pacific oceans. To promote through this deployment a free, open and stable Indo Pacific with our regional partners in the frame of international law. Finally, to contribute to the protection of our population and of our interests in the Indo Pacific where France is a coastal nation, and it must exercise its sovereignty on all its overseas territories”. Rear Admiral Jacques Mallard – French Navy CSG Commanding Officer.
To do so, and as already reported by Naval News, the CSG will count on the carrier itself, an Horizon-type air defense destroyer, an Aquitaine-class frigate (ASW FREMM), an air defense FREMM (FREMM DA, which, Naval News understands is likely to be Alsace), a nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN), a logistics support ship (the Jacques Chevallier) and a Loire-class metropolitan offshore support and assistance vessel. The air wing is set to include two E-2C Hawkeye AEW aircraft, about 24 Rafale Marine and four helicopters.
As it is now the norm with French CSG deployments, the French MoD or Navy do not share specific details (such as exact composition of the strike group or of the airwing, time spent in an area, exact itinerary) in order to preserve an “informational fog of war”.
All through its deployment, other ships from different nations will join the escort at different times. Among them, French partners and allies such as: US, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Australia, Canada, UK, and Japan.
The French CSG will take part in different multilateral or bilateral exercises such as Varuna – an annual French-Indian exercise – that will take place in the Indian Ocean. Another major one is the Laperouse exercise taking place around the Indonesian archipelago during which other navies from the region will join the CSG to rehearse the maritime security of the three main straights. Finally, the last one dubbed “Pacific Steller” shall see the French Navy strengthen the interoperability with the US Navy’s 7th fleet and other Pacific nations like Australia, Canada, Japan.
“This is an interoperability we have few occasions to practice as the 7th fleet is far way compared to the 5th and 6th fleets we see more often.” Admiral Jacques Mallard – French Navy’s CSG Commander.
Beyond operational needs, the “Clemenceau 25” mission is also meant to intensify and strengthen diplomatic ties with other local partners through port call of the carrier itself or escort ships, but also via the participation of the French Navy chief of Staff to the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) and the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS).
“All these interactions will reinforce and confirm the relations developed by the French armed forces in the Indo Pacific during numerous years. The ships based overseas based in La Reunion, New Caledonia or in French Polynesia interact very often with our partners. We can count on our regular deployment in Indo Pacific jut like the Fremm Bretagne did that sailed to Hawaii to participate in RIMPAC exercise. Those deployments are the proofs that the French Navy can regularly go into the area from the metropolitan France”.
At a time where logistics has become again a critical part within naval operations due to geopolitical stakes, France look at tightening up the bonds with other partners to be able support its ships for replenishment especially in ammunition. For the record, French Armed Forces have bases in Djibouti, UAE, La Réunion island in Indian Ocean, and Nouméa and Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean.
Data centers experimentation
Finally about expectations regarding innovations, as did the French Navy’s FREMMs in the Red Sea, the CSG will also embark new systems to experiment, evaluate and maybe integrate them later. The main one mentioned is data centers that will be embarked. The latter shall assist in collecting, exploiting and sharing data to increase analysis capability and decision-making within the task force and with allies’ ships. To experiment, operate and train sailors on it, military reservists – experts in data analysis and issued from the French defense industry will participate in the mission.
“The data centers will allow us to extract data from our sensors, to put them in common with the historical data we have on the area and to draw up a relevant analysis, essential as a decision-making aid. Several applications specific the Navy will be developed thanks to the skills brought by those reservists and will be evaluated in real conditions of a complex and demanding mission”.
