French carrier deployment has started
The French Marine Nationale (French Navy) revealed a new deployment of their carrier strike group. The cruise started on 21 February 2021. Scramble News already reported about this deployment before, see our item of 13 January 2021.
The deployment, named Clemenceau 21, will take some 4,5 months and is formed around the French nuclear aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle (R-91). The CSG, the Embarqued Air Group (Le Groupe aérien embarqué)* and its escorts** started its operations from homeport Toulon (France) and set course to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMED). It is expected that the ship will transit the Suez Channel after some weeks of operations in the Med before it will head to the Indian Ocean, Northern Arabian Sea (NAS) and the Persian Gulf (PG). From the EMED, the NAS and PG the CdG will participate in the international western coalition Operation Inherent Resolve and French own part in the fight against terrorism, Operation Chammal.
Clemenceau 21 is a near copy-paste of the Charles de Gaulle 2019 deployment. During that deployment, several exercises were performed with international partners in the Indo-Pacific region, that include India, Japan and Australia. Also this 2021 deployment will see these exercises, next to the expected combat operations in OIR. Strikingly, also a French Amphibious Group (AG) with landing helicopter dock FS Tonnerre (L-9014) as a flag ship started a deployment in med-February 2021. That cruise is named Mission Jeanne d’Arc 21. The CSG and AG will possibly join up during their deployment.
It will become quite busy with aircraft carriers in the region, as HMS Queen Elizabeth and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) are also on their way, while USS Makin Island (LHD-8) is already in the NAS with elements in the PG.
* twenty Rafales, two E-2C Hawkeye, two Dauphin and one NH90 Caïman
** Multi-mission frigates Auvergne and Provence, the Command and refueling vessel Var, the Air defense frigate Chevalier Paul, and a nuclear-powered attack submarine (name not revealed) . Allied partners deployed with the French CSG, these are US Navy destroyer USS Porter (DDG-78), and the Belgian and Greek frigates HNLMS Leopold I (F-930) and HS Kanaris (F-464)
Photo by Marine Nationale (CdG departing Toulon at 21 February 2021)