EARLY next year, the French Navy will receive the 'Charles de Gaulle,' a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of 39,000 tons.

As well as having a substantial missile armament, it will carry 40 Super Etendard aircraft. A second nuclear carrier will join the fleet in 2002.

They will give between 20 to 25 - and perhaps 30 - years of service, significantly increase the French Navy's air defence capabilities and enable France to protect its strategic and trading interests on the oceans of the world.

Of course, they don't come cheap. I estimate the total cost of the two ships to be around £2 billion.

One wonders what would be the reply from the Government and the Treasury if the Admiralty asked for two similar ships to be built for the Royal Navy.

Yet naval experts agree that the Navy's Fleet Air Arm is totally inadequate. Its aircraft carriers of 19,000 tons, able to carry only 14 aircraft, are simply too small. Larger carriers are needed.

One final point - for the first time in history, France is a stronger naval power than Great Britain.

JOHN PORTER, Thwaites Road, Oswaldtwistle.

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