The refitting work on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier continues, now with the vessel afloat

The Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier was brought into dry dock on 8 February 2017 for a major refit intended to ensure its operational excellence for the next 20 years and on Wednesday 16 May 2018 it was successfully floated out of the dry dock to be moored in the harbour at the Toulon naval base. Floating the vessel out of dry dock is a delicate process due to the vessel's tonnage, requiring tight coordination between all the site's teams. The next phase consists in continuing work with the vessel afloat and conducting operational testing on the installations. The final stage in the vessel's mid-life refit will then be undertaken next autumn with sea trials followed by operational ramping up.

Key figures

• Over 4 million hours of work of which 2.5 million for vessel refitting labour and 1.8 million for design engineering.
• 2.5 million hours of labour of which 1 million for the Toulon site, 500,000 for the other Naval Group sites and 1 million for subcontractors.
• Over 2,000 persons working daily in the shipyard: 1,000 from industry (Naval Group and subcontractors) and 1,100 crew members.
• 160 subcontractors.
• 200,000 tasks.
• 2,000 tests and trials.
• €1.3 billion.
• 1 dry dock being 14 m high, 275 m long and 46 m wide – and containing 177,000 m³ of water, representing about 47 Olympic-size pools – 3 lines of supporting keel blocks, i.e., 165 keel block.

[caption id="attachment_10675" align="aligncenter" width="715"] Release of moorings from the central floating dam[/caption] [caption id="attachment_10676" align="aligncenter" width="715"] Opening of the central floating dam[/caption] [caption id="attachment_10677" align="aligncenter" width="715"] The Naval Group logistic teams [/caption]