France planning second aircraft carrier! !

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/afp/defense/020905161304.xo5bf9m5.html

PARIS, Sept 5 (AFP) – 16:13 GMT – The French government has decided in principle to start building a second aircraft carrier to bolster the country’s naval fleet, a source involved with the project said Thursday.
The announcement comes a week before the government is scheduled to examine a military planning bill that would map out defense spending for the 2003-2008 period.

“The decision in principle has been taken in accordance with what President Jacques Chirac said in July in Toulon,” the source told AFP.

France’s troubled flagship aircraft carrier, the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle, returned to port in Toulon on July 1 after participating for seven months in the US-led multinational military campaign in Afghanistan.

Upon welcoming the ship and its crew home, Chirac said he supported the construction of a second carrier as a way of reinforcing France’s air and naval forces.

Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has repeatedly said that Paris needs to bring its military equipment up to speed.

The Charles de Gaulle has suffered a string of technical hitches, including a wrongly-designed propeller, since it was launched in January 1999.