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519Le Times du 31 août 2010 (accès payant) annonce des plans franco-britanniques pour un “partage” de la flotte de porte-avions des deux pays. The Independent du même 31 août 2010 reprend la nouvelle et en donne les principales précisions, – pour l’instant fort imprécises. L’accord, qui serait annoncé en novembre par Cameron et Sarkozy, semble plus marqué par l’urgence et les nécessités budgétaires que par un projet stratégique élaboré.
Les porte-avions resteraient sous commandement nationaux et il ne semble pas y avoir aucune disposition pour les flottes aéronavales qui resteraient telles qu’elles sont prévues, avec impossibilité de partage entre les unités de différentes nationalités. Des discussions portent actuellement sur le cas de l’emploi des porte-avions pour des intérêts purement nationaux.
«Britain and France are expected to reveal plans to share the use of their aircraft carriers. This would allow Britain to scrap or downgrade one of the two replacement carriers announced in 2007 at a cost of £5.2bn, but would risk thousands of shipyard jobs.
»David Cameron and President Nicolas Sarkozy are expected to announce the proposal in November.
»The arrangement would ensure that one of three ships – one French, two British – remained permanently on patrol. Currently Britain's two aging vessels – HMS Ark Royal and HMS Illustrious – are occasionally both in dock at the same time.
»A decision on the future of the two planned replacement carriers will be announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review in October. A shared patrolling scheme with the French military would allow one to be built to a lesser specification, sold to another country or scrapped.
»The carriers would remain under the command of their respective armed forces. Discussions are under way as to what might happen should an exclusively British interest, such as the Falklands, come under attack during a period in which the French carrier was on patrol.
»According to The Times, sources close to the National Security Council, the new cabinet group which decides the direction of British foreign policy, said that Defence Secretary Liam Fox was minded to give the go-ahead to both carriers, but the second may have its capability downgraded. A down-graded carrier could be used as a base for a troop landing, and take helicopters rather than jets.»
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