According to information published by EuforBIH on March 5, 2022, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is currently conducting operational training in the Mediterranean Sea and its Rafale aircraft will conduct overflights of the Western Balkans including Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (Picture source: French Navy)
Charles de Gaulle is the flagship of the French Navy. The ship, commissioned in 2001, is the tenth French aircraft carrier, first French nuclear-powered surface vessel, as well as only nuclear-powered carrier completed outside of the United States Navy.
It is 261.5 meters long, 64.36 meters wide and 75 meters high. With a displacement of 42,500 tonnes, it can carry around 2,200 sailors on board, with an additional 800 military personnel in troop transport.
The ship carries a complement of Dassault Rafale M and E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, AS365F Dauphin Pedro, EC725 Caracal and AS532 Cougar helicopters for combat search and rescue, as well as modern electronics and Aster missiles.
She is a CATOBAR-type carrier that uses two 75 m C13‑3 steam catapults of a shorter version of the catapult system installed on the US Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, one catapult at the bow and one across the front of the landing area.
The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation.
Equipped with a wide range of weapons, it is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions.
Operation Althea, formally the European Union Force Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR), is a military deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement.
