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| French Aircraft carrier Clemenceau (R 98) |
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| Country:
France |
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Type: Aircraft carrier |
| Service:
1961 - 1997 |
| Laid down: November 1955 |
| Launched: 21 December 1957 |
| Commissioned: 22 November 1961 |
| Decommissioned: 1 October 1997 |
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Clemenceau (R 98) was the lead ship of her class, and the eighth aircraft carrier of the French Navy, serving from 1961 to 1997. The Clemenceau completed a number of deployments including combat missions in the Sea of Oman and the eastern Mediterranean.
Development of Clemenceau represented the successful effort by France 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. Built at the shipyard in Brest, the ships of the Clemenceau class were a small but effective design, using elements of United States aircraft 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.
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| 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 |
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 x 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 Etendard
4 Etendard IVP
8 F-8E(FN) Crusader
8 Alize
2 Dauphin Pedro
2 Super Frelon |
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