All at sea – France’s carrier undertakes major Pacific deployment
January 9, 2025
The French Navy’s Clemenceau 25 deployment will be deployed in a complex strategic environment and will demonstrate and exercise naval superiority, and power projection capabilities. The mission will also contribute to France’s autonomous situation assessment capabilities, which are deemed essential for preventing crises while also exercising intervention capabilities. The deployment is intended to help develop interoperability and co-operation with France’s partners and allies from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean, and demonstrates France’s commitment to freedom of action and freedom of movement at sea and in the air.
The Charles De Gaulle carrier strike group (CSG), consisting of the aircraft carrier, three frigates, a supply ship (the French Navy’s newest fleet oiler, FNS Jacques Chevallier (A725), and several foreign escort vessels (from the United States, Italy, Greece and Morocco), set sail from Toulon on 28 November 2024 to begin the ‘Clemenceau 25’ deployment. A French nuclear attack submarine will be operating ahead of the CSG, and the carrier is also being supported by land based French Navy Atlantique 2 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA).
The French CSG transited the Suez Canal and then conducted operations around the Red Sea before moving on to the Indo-Pacific where it will carry out three major exercises with allies.
France has been a member of the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) since 2008, which brings together 25 navies from countries of the Indian Ocean, and regularly exercises with the Indian Navy. On this deployment, the CSG will participate in the Indian Navy’s 42nd bilateral annual exercise, known as Varuna, in the Arabian Sea.
Following the Varuna exercise, the French CSG will join with the Indian Navy, the US Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Navy, the Royal Malaysian Navy, the Republic of Singapore Navy, the Philippine Navy, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Royal Australian Navy to conduct the biennial exercise La Perouse in the Indian Ocean area south of Indonesia and northwest of Australia’s coast.
This will be the first time that countries from ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) will take part in Exercise La Perouse drills. The final exercise, Exercise Pacific Steller, will be held in the waters near Guam, and will see the CSG joining the US 7th Fleet, the RCN, the JMSDF and the RAN in what has been described as a ‘high intensity exercise’.
During the deployment, the CSG will be augmented by ships from Australia, Canada, Japan, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.
China immediately criticised the planned deployment with the People’s Liberation Army official news channel China Military Online opining that the deployment “is not conducive to regional peace and stability.”
