Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 2:34:10-2:35:33

Will France's next carrier surpass the Ford class?

France's future carrier may contain newer components, but a one-ship program cannot be compared directly with an eleven-ship American class.

Aircraft CarriersFrench NavyGerald R. Ford Class Aircraft CarriersPA-NGShipbuildingUS Navy
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Question

Will France's PANG carrier be more advanced and a better overall design than the Gerald R. Ford class?

Short answer

Some systems may be newer, but the different production scale prevents calling it broadly superior.

Notes

A singleton can justify refinements whose accumulated cost would be too high across a large class. PANG could also contain newer components because it comes later in the design cycle. The comparison uses Japanese battleships based on British designs: improving one Japanese ship could be worthwhile when repeating the cost across nine British ships might reduce the affordable order to seven. The same distinction is applied to one French carrier and eleven American carriers. PANG is judged a good design without being massively better than the Gerald R. Ford class.