Aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its strike group set sails on February 3rd to participate in a large-scale combined exercise dubbed FANAL19. The goal of FANAL19 is to achieve a high level of operational readiness and interoperability within an allied naval force.
The French aircraft carrier deployed for the exercise with Spanish Navy frigate “Cristobal Colon”, US Navy destroyer USS Donald Cook, the French multi-mission frigate (FREMM) “Provence”, the French command and replenishment ship “Marne” and a French Rubis-class nuclear attack submarine. The carrier strike group (CSG) is under the command of Rear-Admiral Olivier Lebas.
The scenario of FANAL19 calls for the CSG (Task Force 473) to face multiple threats in order to carry out naval air operations in multiple domains (projection of air-land power and anti-submarine, anti-surface and anti-air warfare).