Summary and Key Points: France’s next supercarrier, named France Libre in March 2026 after years as PANG, will displace 78,000 tons on a 1,020-foot hull, carry 30 Rafale F5s, and use EMALS catapults. Construction begins in 2031 and commissioning is planned for 2038, the same year Charles de Gaulle, France’s only carrier, is due to retire.
France’s Next Aircraft Carrier: France Libre Coming Soon or Already in Trouble?
Vive la France, Vive la Liberté, oui-oui, Monsieur/Mademoiselle…but what about “Vive la France Libre?” As in France Libre (“Free France”), the future aircraft carrier of the French Navy ( La Marine Nationale), that is?
Along with the United States, France is the only nation with a nuclear-powered supercarrier, and losing that lofty status would certainly be a major blow to Gallic pride.
PANG France Nuclear Aircraft Carrier. Image Credit: French Government.
PANG Aircraft Carrier French Navy Photo.
PANG Aircraft Carrier from France. Image Credit: Industry Handout.
Ergo, the France Libre warship sounds great in theory and looks good on paper, but given the French government’s somewhat spotty history of actually building “flattops,” how feasible will it be in practice?
France Libre Premise and Promise
The future carrier was initially designated “PANG,” an acronym for Porte-avions de nouvelle génération, meaning “new generation aircraft carrier.” The acronym is a trifle ironic, because Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “pang” as “1: a brief piercing spasm of pain,” e.g., “the pangs of childbirth,” and “2: a sharp attack of mental anguish.”
Semantics aside, the France Libre project takes on additional significance because it is the designated replacement for the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle, named for France’s most iconic hero of the 20th century.
The Charles de Gaulle (Pennant No. R91; affectionately nicknamed “CDG”) was commissioned and made her maiden voyage on 18 May 2001, seven years after her launch date.
Ordered on 3 February 1986, she was originally named the Richelieu in honor of Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, considered to be one of the founders of the French Navy; she was rechristened in honor of President de Gaulle on 18 May 1987.
Fast forward to 18 March 2026, and in keeping with the tradition of honoring Monsieur De Gaulle, current French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the PANG would be named France Libre after the Free France government-in-exile led by then-General de Gaulle during World War II.
As for France Libre, her keel hasn’t been laid yet.
Her construction is expected to begin sometime in 2031—by which time CDG will be celebrating her 30th service anniversary—and is slated for commissioning in 2038, the same year that her predecessor is planned for retirement.
PANG will sport advanced flattop features such as the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), which are prominent on the U.S. Navy’s new Gerald R. Ford-class carriers.
France Libre Technical Specifications and Vital Stats
When completed, the new warship will displace 78,000 tons fully laden, with a hull length of 1,020 feet and a beam of 279 feet. For comparison, “CDG” has a fully laden displacement of 42,500 tons, a hull length of 857 feet 11 inches, and a beam of 211 feet 2 inches.
As Harper Ellis noted in a 21 April 2025 article for Defense Feed, “This will not only be France’s largest aircraft carrier but also the largest warship ever constructed in Europe, setting the bar for future aircraft carriers across the globe.”
As far as the aircraft carrier’s raison d’etre, France Libre will be able to accommodate 30 Dassault Rafale F5 fighter jets, three Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) planes, three NHIndustries NH90 Caïman helicopters for anti-submarine warfare (ASW), and three Airbus H160M Guépard choppers for plane guard/search & rescue (SAR) and liaison duties.
That’s still significantly lower than the 90 airframes the Ford- and Nimitz-class flattops can accommodate.
France Libre or PANG Summed Up in 1 Word: Trouble?
Earlier, the new French carrier appeared to hit a construction postponement snag, but that delay was staved off by Monsieur Macron’s December 2025 decision to greenlight the warship’s realization phase.
However, France Libre isn’t out of the proverbial woods yet.
It’s intended as a one-for-one replacement for the Charles de Gaulle, and beneath the pride of CDG providing Paris with nuclear naval power projection capability lies the scary fact that she’s France’s *only* aircraft carrier; La Marine Nationale has no non-nuclear flattops to supplement CDG.
So then, why hasn’t France built any other carriers in the meantime? Well, the French tried to do so…and they failed.
You see, back in 2003, the Porte-Avions 2 (PA2) carrier project was proposed as a successor to the carriers Clemenceau (R98) and Foch (R99), which were decommissioned in 1997 and 2000 respectively.
PA2 was to be based upon the United Kingdom’s CVF design—now known as the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class—and indeed the French government paid the British government a princely sum for design access, to the tune of £30 million in January 2006 and £25 million in July 2006, with an additional £45 million to be paid at the end of the demonstration phase if France decided to continue with the project.
However, as oftentimes happens in Anglo-French relations, the two countries got into a proverbial pissing contest: the Frenchies wanted nuclear propulsion, whilst the Brits dismissed nuke power as too costly and called for gas turbines instead, and in June 2008, then-President of France Nicolas Sarkozy decided to suspend co-operation with the UK on the aircraft carrier project.
Long story short, PA2 was suspended in 2009 and formally canceled in the Livre Blanc 2013, i.e., the 2013 White Paper on Defense and National Security, which prioritized cost restraint over expanding naval aviation assets.
With five years left before the France Libre even begins construction, the French admirals will have to keep their fingers crossed that this future warship doesn’t also get the bureaucratic axe.
Stay tuned, dear readers.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (with a concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He is also the author of the book “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series,” the second edition of which was recently published.
