Early availability problems encouraged French criticism of deployable military power and helped sustain the argument for PA2. Charles de Gaulle nevertheless joined Operation Enduring Freedom with HMS Ocean, two American supercarriers, and Dutch and Italian ships. The air group described for these operations included sixteen Super Étendards, two Rafale Ms, one Hawkeye, and helicopters. The Super Étendards concentrated on reconnaissance and bombing against Afghanistan and are credited with roughly 770 sorties. Those operations demonstrate substantial output during deployment, alongside the separate problem of gaps when the carrier was unavailable.
Chapter · 38:15-40:10
Early availability problems and operations off Afghanistan
The carrier's early career juxtaposed periods of unavailability with a real contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom, including strike, reconnaissance, and bombing sorties.