Nuclear propulsion and national sovereignty: the aircraft carrier issue. Note Nr 07/2018

After having recalled that France possesses the second (and maybe soon the first) Economic Exclusive Zone in the world, and outlined that a vast majority of people are living relatively close to the coasts and that the safety of shipping routes is a major economic and geostrategic issue, the author discusses the importance of sea-carriers, the reasons for possessing them, and then choices for their propulsion mode (conventional or nuclear) and for their specific equipment (catapult or ski-jump, etc.). He also discusses the choice of aircraft carrier type and the determination of the required number of carriers, and the choice of their propulsion mode