France will build a new aircraft carrier with a capacity for 30 fighter jets and 2,000 sailors, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced. The new vessel is planned to be ready in 2038, replacing the ageing Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, which came into service in 2001. It will have a displacement of about 78,000 tons and a length of 310 meters (1,017 feet), compared to 42,000 tons and 261 meters (856 feet) for the Charles de Gaulle.

The new carrier would still be smaller than the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, the largest warship in the world, which has a displacement of more than 100,000 tons and measures 1,100 feet (334 metres). Like its predecessor, France’s new aircraft carrier will be nuclear-powered and equipped with French Rafale M fighter jets. Macron said the project will benefit hundreds of suppliers, most of them small- and medium-sized businesses.

Macron has announced 6.5 billion euros in extra military spending in the next two years. He said France will aim to spend 64 billion euros on defence in 2027, the last year of his second term, double the level of 32 billion euros when he became president in 2017.