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How France Almost Sold Russia Two Powerful Aircraft Carriers
BREAKING News
And then Crimea was stolen away.
by Sebastien Roblin, The National Interest
It’s not uncommon for national leaders to succumb to the temptation of lucrative weapon sales abroad, even when there are obvious risks those weapons could undermine their national security and diplomatic interests, or those of close allies.
After all, the United Kingdom, France and the United States have warred with countries fielding guns, jet fighters and warships built in Western factories. Even seemingly “safe” third parties may transfer hi-tech weapons technologies to additional actors they were never intended for.
Perhaps no such conflict between profit-motive and national security seems more mind-boggling than the fact that, five years ago, France very nearly sold Russia two advanced amphibious assault ships, as well as the technology to build two more. But for a coincidence of timing, NATO today might have to plan for the threat posed by four Russian helicopter carriers, instead of none.
The boxy 26,000-ton Mistral-class carriers pack in most of the features you’d expect from amphibious assault ships, except for support for jump jets (France doesn’t have any). Each measures the length of two football fields, and their flight decks can accommodate up to 35 small- or 16 medium-sized helicopters, with spots to land up to six at a time. These can be used to hunt submarines, land troops ashore, or attack surface targets.
They also have internal well decks that can carry up to four CTM or EDA landing craft to ferry up to 60 vehicles (including main battle tanks) and or 450-900 troops ashore, and a large hospital with 69 beds to treat battle casualties or evacuees.
The Mistrals are also equipped with advanced satellite-based communication systems, laser-based inertial navigation systems, three-dimensional radars, and a huge command center space so they can serve as forward command ships. For propulsion, the vessels use electrically driven pod-mounted propellers called azimuth thrusters that double as agile steering mechanisms.
Mistrals comes at roughly half the price of the U.S. Navy’s Wasp-class LHDs at around $600 to 700 million, and thanks to a high degree of automation can function with 160 crew instead of the Wasp’s 1,000. This theoretically should make them appealing for export.
The vessels are useful both for peaceful missions and armed interventions. France commissioned the first two ships, Mistral and Tonnerre, in 2006. Mistral evacuated foreign nationals from Lebanon during the Israel-Hezbollah conflict of 2006, while Tonnerre ferried troops and helicopters for France’s intervention in the Ivorian Civil War (Operation Licorne). Both dispatched Gazelle and Tiger attack helicopters on missions in 2013 Libya campaign (Operation Harmattan). The Dixmude, commissioned in 2012, was almost immediately involved in deploying armored vehicles and helicopters in France’s interventions against Islamist insurgents in Mali and the civil war in the Central African Republic.
French Helicopters for…Russia?
In 2009, Russia decided it wanted helicopter carriers—but lacking the technology readily at hand, sought a foreign buyer. In December 2010, the Mistral beat out the Spanish Juan Carlos-class in a competition. For $1.7 billion, Paris agreed to build two Mistrals for Russia, train crews in their operation—and then transfer technology so that Russia could build two more for its own use. This was to be the largest arms deal from the West to Moscow since World War II.
That such a deal was possible illustrated the fundamentally different tenor of Europe-Russia relations prior to Moscow’s seizure of Crimea and involvement in Eastern Ukraine. But even then, the Mistral sale was criticized abroad by fellow members of NATO and NATO allies.
For one, France was effectively offering ship-building technology that would, according to Russian officials, take Russia at least a decade to develop.
Furthermore, most of the obvious uses of the ships ran contrary to the interests of France’s allies. The commander of the Russian Navy claimed (dubiously) the carriers would have allowed Russia to defeat Georgia in a 2008 war “within 40 minutes”; and a senior general noted the lead ship would serve in the Pacific fleet in case Russia needed to deploy troops to the Kuril islands, which remain subject to an ongoing border disputewith Japan.
Furthermore, the deal included the transfer of sensitive radar and command and control technologies—which may have been more valuable than the ships themselves.
The vessels were laid down at the STX shipyard in Saint Nazaire in 2012, with additional components manufactured in St. Petersburg, Russia, before being shipped to France for final assembly in a 60/40 French-Russian split. Differences in the Russian carriers, to be named Sebastopol and Vladivostok, included Russian-built point defense weapons (Igla short-range anti-aircraft missiles, and AGK630 30-millimeter autocannons), adaptation for Arctic operations, aviation facilities and electrical wiring.