Economics forcing UK/French carrier cooperation

Based on a variety of economic issues, the Brits are looking to sell a carrier to India and then time the maintenance of their one remaining carrier with the French.

One of the Royal Navy's new £2bn aircraft carriers could be sold off under government cost-cutting plans, the Guardian has learned.

It is understood that India has recently lodged a firm expression of interest to buy one of the two state-of-the-art 65,000 tonne carriers, which are still being built by BAE Systems in the UK.

Any sale of the long-delayed carriers would be highly controversial and would leave the Royal Navy with just one carrier. It could also force Britain to borrow from the French navy, which itself only has one carrier and is reluctant to build any more.

Last summer French president Nicolas Sarkozy proposed to Gordon Brown that the two navies co-ordinate the maintenance and retrofitting of their carriers, so that at least one of them is at sea at any time.

What this really means? It means that NATO is even more dependent on US naval power for any serious action. And it severely degrades the ability of either the Brits or French to unilaterally intervene anywhere the US doesn't care about, like the Falklands, West Africa, New Caledonia, or anywhere else similar.




By: Brant