A French Navy official has laid out a broad plan for the country’s carrier air wing from up to 2045. While the plan likely highlights just one vision of the kinds of aircraft we’re likely to see aboard the French Navy’s carrier in the future, it’s notable in that it includes a significant drone component, alongside advanced crewed aircraft. France has a single nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, currently in operation, and is planning to build an even more capable flattop to replace it, around 2038.
The plan was presented in the form of a slide in a briefing by a French Navy official at the Combined Naval Event (CNE) that took place in Farnborough, England, this week. The event was conducted under Chatham House rules, meaning that information can be freely shared, but the identity of the speaker cannot be disclosed. The slide, seen below, was shared with TWZ by Navy Lookout, which provides independent naval news and analysis.
The slide shows three different compositions for the French Navy’s carrier air wing, starting in 2038. Whether coincidental or not, this is around the time that the Charles de Gaulle should be replaced by the Porte-Avions de Nouvelle Génération, or PA-Ng, which translates to New Generation Aircraft Carrier. You can read more about this warship here.
As of 2038, the air wing is still based around the two main fixed-wing types now in service aboard the Charles de Gaulle, the Rafale M multirole fighter and the E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft. These are shown complemented by a rotary-wing drone, which appears to be the Airbus Helicopters VSR700, but it may also be intended to represent this kind of capability more generically.
The VSR700 is in development for the French Navy, after flight tests of a demonstrator version from one of its FREMM frigates in 2023. The drone is being proposed for intelligence, surveillance, targeting, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) and anti-submarine warfare operations, but could also undertake logistics, especially valuable aboard an aircraft carrier, and other tasks.
There are various other alternatives to the VSR700, as well, most notably Austria’s Schiebel S-300 rotary-wing drone, which will likely compete with it for French Navy orders.
By 2038, the slide indicates that the French Navy will be operating the F5 version of the Rafale M, which will bring a host of new capabilities compared with the current F3 model.
The F5 version of the Rafale, which will be in both land-based and carrier-compatible versions, is something we have discussed in the past.
Standard F5 is planned to keep the Rafale in frontline service until around 2060. This latest iteration of the aircraft will focus on collaborative combat, as well as incorporating new-generation weapons, among them the ASN4G, the next-generation standoff nuclear weapon.
Other new weapons for Standard F5 are expected to include successors for the SCALP conventional cruise missile and the Exocet anti-ship missile, with a hypersonic design being examined for the latter requirement. Air-to-air munitions should include an upgraded Meteor beyond-visual-range missile.
Very significantly, the F5 version is also planned to be fielded alongside a new, French-developed uncrewed combat air vehicle (UCAV), of which more later.
The next configuration of the carrier air wing is for 2040, by which time two new types of drones are shown as being in service. These are described loosely as an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) and an uncrewed combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) on the slide and are illustrated with an MQ-9 and a Dassault nEUROn demonstrator, respectively.
The F5 version of the Rafale M and the E-2D will also still be in service at this point.
The UCAV, illustrated by the stealthy flying-wing nEUROn, may well be intended to represent the drone that France plans to introduce to work alongside the F5 Rafale, as well as independently. We already know this drone program will be headed up by Dassault Aviation and will draw upon the company’s experience with the nEUROn.
The new UCAV has already been billed as being “complementary to the Rafale and suited to collaborative combat.” It will also have stealth characteristics, including an internal payload. The drone will feature autonomous control, with a human-in-the-loop (in the case of collaborative operations, the pilot in the cockpit of the Rafale).
According to Dassault, the UCAV “will be highly versatile and designed to evolve in line with future threats.” Its missions are expected to include suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses (SEAD/DEAD), in which the Rafale would benefit hugely from a low-observable loyal-wingman-type drone to operate in concert with the crewed fighter.
As for the MQ-9, the land-based Reaper is already in French service, but its manufacturer, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), is busily pursuing ways of adapting MQ-9-series drones for aircraft carrier operations. The company has devised a wing-kit which turns the MQ-9B into a big deck ship-deployable drone. It has also demonstrated its Mojave, specifically developed with the ability to perform short takeoffs and landings, including from different aircraft carriers. The same capabilities found in the Mojave demonstrator have meanwhile been ported over into the Gray Eagle STOL — a design we have discussed in depth in the past.
Should the French Navy be interested in fielding a member of the wider family of Q-1 lineage drones aboard its carrier, that would certainly be an option. A drone of this kind could also serve as a sea control/anti-submarine warfare platform, as well as take on other roles such as airborne early warning radar and a networking node ‘truck.’ Meanwhile, in low-threat environments, it could even be used for reconnaissance and strike.
The final carrier air wing configuration shown is for 2045, by which time, more significant developments will have changed the face of the aircraft on the deck of the French Navy’s carrier.
The spearhead of the 2045 carrier air wing is the navalized version of the Next Generation Fighter (NGF). This will be provided with its own air-launched Remote Carriers, a type of store that will increasingly blur the distinction between cruise missiles and drones, and which will deliver kinetic effects as well as carrying other types of payloads.
As TWZ wrote about in the past:
“The requirement to have NGF — or a version of NGF — able to operate from French Navy aircraft carriers will bring additional challenges to the design, chiefly in the form of landing gear able to absorb deck landings, as well as catapult launch and arrester gear. The airframe would also have to be more robust for carrier operations, adding mass to the design, and that naval requirement would have to be accounted for in the wing and control surface design in order to allow for optimized carrier recovery. At the very least, this would necessitate a variant that is built for carrier operations, which would increase cost and timeline.”
It has also been reported that the NGF may be too large to be easily accommodated on the Charles de Gaulle. The new fighter is likely to weigh in the region of 33 tons, compared to around 27 tons for a fully loaded Rafale. A larger airframe could translate to considerable range, as well as the ability to carry a significant payload internally. However, with the new carrier planned to be available from around 2038, the navalized NGF likely won’t have to embark on the Charles de Gaulle.
At the same time, the F5 version of the Rafale M and the E-2D will continue to serve alongside the NGF, at least for a while. The Rafale M could also be a potential launch platform for Remote Carriers.
The NGF is being developed as the centerpiece of the pan-European Future Combat Air System (FCAS), not to be confused with the U.K.-led effort of the same name. The pan-European FCAS will include uncrewed air vehicles as well as uncrewed effectors and the aforementioned Remote Carriers.
Perhaps most intriguingly, the uncrewed component for the 2045 carrier air wing now also includes the Airbus Wingman uncrewed concept aircraft, which was not previously known to be intended for carrier operations.
The French Navy is clearly giving some thought to the potential of a fighter-like, stealthy drone within its carrier air wing, and as a capability to be introduced after a flying-wing-type UCAV.
The Wingman, unveiled by Airbus last summer, is also intended to fly collaborative missions alongside crewed fighters. It has been pitched as a low-cost solution, with a price tag equivalent to one-third that of a modern crewed fighter, that can be brought into production and fielded rapidly.
According to Airbus, the German Air Force has “expressed a clear need” for a drone of this kind that would be able to operate in conjunction with crewed fighters before the arrival in service of the pan-European FCAS.
As we noted at the time, it’s hard to envisage that Airbus could develop and build the Wingman solely to meet a German requirement, and interest in a carrier-based version from France could give the program a valuable boost, were that to become formalized.
Once again, it should be noted that this is very much a suggestion of possible carrier air wing configurations through to 2045 and very much not a program of record. It is, however, interesting to see that the French Navy is considering the possibilities of operating different types of drones aboard its carriers, including the fighter-like Wingman and some kind of development of the nEUROn, or equivalent, which could provide powerful strike and ISTAR capabilities, if pursued.
The timeline also suggests that France is first looking to introduce a heavier, carrier-based, traditional stealthy UCAV with added collaborative capabilities, rather than a loyal wingman-type drone, first. It is likely that one reason for this is the need to combine the non-stealthy Rafale with a higher-end drone partner to remain relevant in highly contested combat environments in the future. Range is also likely an issue, with UCAV concepts generally possessing a combat radius in multiples of their manned fighter counterparts. This is key to the relevancy of the carrier going forward. Also worth noting is the fact that China also appears to be betting big on a similar concept, starting with carrier-based UCAVs, something that the U.S. Navy has passed over entirely.
With its increasingly unmanned carrier air wing, the French Navy is very much following broader trends in China, the United States, and elsewhere.
In the past, the U.S. Navy has said it wants to have uncrewed platforms make up the majority of its future carrier air wings, with up to 60 percent of all aircraft on each flattop being pilotless in the coming decade or two. More recently, however, the Navy has talked about scaling back its ambitions for developing and fielding carrier-based Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), at least in terms of how quickly it might want to pursue them.
Instead, the U.S. Navy is putting more effort into its MQ-25 Stingray tanker drone and its supporting infrastructure. Meanwhile, although it is experimenting with the CCA concept, the Navy is allowing the other services, especially the U.S. Air Force, to prove this out in a full-operational service context.
With that in mind, the French Navy’s apparent consideration of stealthy UCAVs as part of its future carrier air wing is especially notable. Again, it highlights a glaring gap in the U.S. combat aircraft space, one we have been pointing out in detail for many years. Undoubtedly, there’s growing interest in stealthy UCAVs around the world, including for embarking on carriers. It will be interesting to see what direction the French Navy takes as it starts to assemble the air wing for its next-generation carrier.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com