Clemenceau (R 98)

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Career (France)

Namesake:	Georges Clemenceau
Builder:	Brest shipyard
Laid down:	November 1955
Launched:	21 December 1957
Commissioned:	22 November 1961
Decommissioned:	1 October 1997
Homeport:	Brest
Nickname:	Clem
Fate:	Awaiting disposal
General characteristics
Class and type:	Clemenceau class aircraft carrier
Displacement:	32,700 tons full load
Length:	238 m
Beam:	31.7 m
Draught:	8.6 m
Propulsion:	6 x Indret boilers 4 x steam turbines 126,000 shp
Speed:	32 knots (59 km/h)
Capacity:	582 air group personnel
Complement:	1,338 ship's company
Sensors and processing systems:	1 x DRBV-23B air sentry radar 1 x DRBV-50 low altitude or surface sentry radar (later replaced by a DRBV-15) 1 x NRBA-50 approach radar 2 x DRBI-10 tri-dimensional air sentry radar Multiple DRBN-34 navigation radars Multiple DRBC-31 fire direction radars (later replaced by DRBC-32C radars)
Armament:	8 × 100 mm turrets (originally) ; in the 1990s, 4 were replaced by 2 SACP Crotale EDIR systems, with 52 missiles; 5 × 12.7 mm machine guns
Aircraft carried:	40 total aircraft: 15 Super Étendard 4 Étendard IVP 8 F-8E(FN) Crusader 8 Alizé 2 Dauphin Pedro 2 Super Frelon

Clemenceau (R 98), often affectionately called "le Clem'", was the lead ship of her class, and the 8th aircraft carrier of the French Navy, serving from 1961 to 1997. She was the second French warship to be named after Georges Clemenceau, the first one being a battleship of the Richelieu class, laid down in 1939 but never finished.

1 History
- 1.1 Missions
2 Reports of a mutiny
3 Decommissioning controversy
4 Trivia
5 Design
6 Gallery
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] History

Development of Clemenceau represented France's successful effort to produce its own class of multi-role carriers to replace American and British ships which were provided at the end of World War II. The ship was a small but effective design, using elements of United States carrier design, but to a smaller scale. The vessels were given relatively heavy gun armament for their size, and some stability problems were encountered which required bulging the hull.

Clemenceau went through a major refit from September 1977 to November 1978. She was again refitted with new defensive systems from 1 September 1985 to 31 August 1987, including replacement of four of the 100 mm guns with a pair of Crotale surface-to-air missile launchers.

Clemenceau and Foch, her sister ship, served as the mainstay of the French fleet, and during her career, she sailed more than 1,000,000 nautical miles (2,000,000 km) in 3,125 days at sea, on all the seas of the world.

[edit] Missions

1974 Independence of Djibouti, in the Indian Ocean.

1982-1984 Lebanon civil war the, She would rotate with the Foch providing constant on station air support to French peacekeepers.^[1]

1987-1988 Operation Prométhée. The ship receives orders to position in Oman sea, to protect French merchant traffic in Persian gulf from Iranian speedboats during war between Iran and Iraq. She arrives on area on 15 August. Iranian P-3 Orion intercepted by F-8 Crusader on CAP.

1990, the ship escorted by the Colbert and the Var, transported 40 helicopters (SA-341F/ -342 Gazelles, SA-330 Pumas), three Br-1050 Alizés and trucks to Iraq during 'Desert storm & Desert shield'.^[2]

1993-1996 several tours including combat operations and air patrol over former Yugoslavia ^[3] during operation 'Balbuzard' to support the UN's troops.

[edit] Reports of a mutiny

During the May 1968 social turmoil the French political/satirical magazine Le Canard enchaîné issue of 19 June 1968 reported a mutiny aboard the Clemenceau. The carrier was bound for a nuclear test in the Pacific at the end of May, but was brought back to Toulon. Three families were informed that their sons had been 'lost at sea'. The magazine of the UNEF (National Union of Students of France) apparently carried a fuller report in its 14th June issue but the print run was seized [1].

[edit] Decommissioning controversy

In December 2004, before Clemenceau set sail for India, Greenpeace started protesting against France's plans to outsource the scrapping of the 27,000-ton warship laden with toxins such as asbestos, PCBs, lead, mercury, and other toxic chemicals in India in violation of the Basel Convention.

On 31 December 2005 Clemenceau left the French port of Toulon to be dismantled in Alang, Gujarat, India.

On 6 January 2006 the Supreme Court of India temporarily denied access to Alang. [2]

On 12 January 2006 the ship reached Egypt, where she was boarded by two Greenpeace activists. [3] Egyptian authorities denied access to the Suez Canal.

On 15 January the ship was finally allowed to pass. This decision was heavily criticised by Greenpeace and other environmental groups. [4] That same day French President Jacques Chirac ordered Clemenceau to return to French waters and remain on standby following a ruling by France's highest administrative court, the Conseil d'État.[5]

Clemenceau is expected to remain for some time in the naval port at Brest, where she arrived in May 2006.

[edit] Trivia

The song Les trois matelots, by Renaud, makes numerous allusions to Clemenceau.
One of the most well-remembered television commercials in France, a 1985 spot for the Citroën Visa GTI, was shot on Clemenceau. A race pits the car against a Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard; both continue off the end of the carrier, with the small automobile briefly keeping pace with the aircraft before plummeting into the ocean. Seconds later, though, the car triumphantly emerges, perched on the foredeck of a surfacing submarine.

[edit] Design

1: 100 mm gun; 2: targeting DRBC-31 radar; 3: side elevator; 4: crane; 5: approach radar; 6: altimetry DRBI-10 radar; 7: funnel; 8: DRBV-20 sentry radar; 9: Tacon beacon; 10: low altitude/surface DRBV-50 radar; 11: air sentry DRBV-23 radar; 12: altimetry DRBI-10 radar; 13: targeting DRBC-31 radar; 14: OP3 landing mirror; 15: 4-blade propeller; 16: HF radio antenas; 17: side stairs.

[edit] Gallery

The ship's wheel	Engine control panel.	View of Clemenceau where the command tower and the main guns are clearly visible.	A Super Étendard ready for launch off the flight deck (16 July 1997)
Super Étendards on the flight deck