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Originally Posted by Europeanarmy
France is able to protect its aircraft carrier. Why?
_ French Rafales and Hawkeyes are already good means to protect the ship against air and naval attacks.
_ French SSNs and ASW ships are good numerous and of good quality for anti-submarine defense.
_ The problems the carrier experienced at the beginning of its life are over now.
_ For anti-air defense, France has the 2 modern Cassard Class Destroyers and will have soon (2006-2009) 2 other destroyers (Forbin Class) built with the Italian navy.
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Certainly the CdG is a lot larger than Spains PdA mini-carrier. And the Rafale outclasses the spanish AV8-B on all accords short of the VTOL capability. Rafale is more like the superhornet, but looks more stealty.
France has SSNs and SSBNs, Spain has no SSNs and no SSBNs.
The french navys weak spot is the escort fleet. The Cassard class is not very modern, they use the SM-1 missile and doesn't have a phased array radar. Horizon class AAW destroyers still is a few years away, althoug the first was recently launched, but some construction still remains and off course outfitting.
The LaFayette class is lacking in sensors, and the other escorts are getting old.
Spains F-100 outclasses the french carrier escorts by a large margin, especially for AAW.
A real carrier and SSNs and SSBNs outweights better escorts, wouldn't you say?
Orca