The French Carrier Strike Group (CSG) has returned to its home port of Toulon (South of France) after a five-month mission in the Indo-Pacific during which the French Navy (Marine Nationale) strengthened diplomatic ties and enhanced joint naval operations with its allies and partners.
French Navy press release
- Return of the Carrier Strike Group (CSG) after five months of operational deployment from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean.
- Nearly 3,000 sailors were involved in the CLEMENCEAU 25 mission, working around the clock for 150 days to carry out a wide range of naval missions.
- The CLEMENCEAU 25 mission was an opportunity to demonstrate France’s commitment to preserving freedom of navigation in accordance with international law, and to interact with some twenty allied or partner countries.
After 5 months of operational deployment from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean, the ships of the carrier strike group (CSG) including the aircraft carrier ‘Charles de Gaulle’ with its carrier air group and staff on board, three frigates, the Jacques Chevallier replenishment tanker and a nuclear-powered attack submarine, docked in Toulon on April 25, at the end of an exceptional mission in terms of the diversity of operations carried out, partnerships developed and areas traversed.
As part of the CLEMENCEAU 25 deployment, the CSG first demonstrated its ability to act as an aggregator of naval forces, by integrating allied or partner escorts including 6 frigates (in chronological order: Italian, American, Greek, Portuguese and Moroccan). These resources were also bolstered along the way by detachments of Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft temporary based in Djibouti, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore.
From the Mediterranean, directly contributing to Europe’s security, the CSG contributed to the autonomous assessment of the situation in the Middle East, carried out flights over the Black Sea to reaffirm freedom of navigation in this disputed zone, and integrated the NEPTUNE STRIKE exercise reinforcing NATO’s collective defense.
In the Indo-Pacific, four major activities shaped our deployment. Firstly, the LA PEROUSE 25 exercise in January brought together Australia, Canada, the United States, France, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and Singapore to enhance joint expertise in maritime security in the Indonesian Straits of Malacca, Sunda and Lombok.
The RASTABAN projection mission, also in January, saw three Rafale-Marine deployed to Darwin (Australia) from the southern Indonesian arc, almost 2,000 km from the CSG and conducted joint air combat training with the Royal Australian Air Force’s F-35s.
In February, the unprecedented Multi Large Deck Event PACIFIC STELLER with the US and Japanese navies brought together three aircraft carriers and over 100 aircrafts in a high-intensity exercise, and very quickly achieved a high level of interoperability.
Finally, the 42nd edition of the VARUNA multi-domain exercise, held in March with the Indian Navy – a strategic partner in the area – included the Indian aircraft carrier Vikrant for the first time.
The various ports of call of the CLEMENCEAU 25 mission enabled the development of new logistical support points, such as Lombok in Indonesia and Subic Bay in the Philippines for the aircraft carrier ‘Charles de Gaulle’, as well as Darwin in Australia and Okinawa in Japan for the replenishment tanker ‘Jacques Chevallier’.
The deployment also provided fertile ground for numerous experiments in tactical and logistical data collection and analysis. It enabled the CSG to familiarize itself with the conditions specific to this region, to implement its resources and adapt to both the environment and its players.
The CLEMENCEAU 25 mission involved almost 3,000 sailors working around the clock for 150 days to carry out 4 major multinational naval operations, 2,500 catapults, 100 refuelings at sea (including 20 for foreign vessels) and 40,000 nautical miles – the equivalent of 2 circumnavigations of the globe. This mission demonstrated France’s commitment to preserving freedom of navigation in accordance with international law, and enabled us to interact with some twenty allied or partner countries with similar ambitions on a range of diversified missions, from maritime security to high-intensity joint operations between several aircraft carriers.
The return from mission was also marked by the sad death at sea of Petty Officer Léo Soulas, deployed with the carrier naval airwing since November 28, 2024. The French Navy associates itself with the grief of the family, loved ones and brothers-in-arms of this exemplary sailor.
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