Sovereignty Showpiece, American Guts

France is spending over €10 billion to build its most powerful warship ever — and the heart of it depends on technology only America can provide.

Story Snapshot

France’s new nuclear aircraft carrier, named France Libre, will be fitted with three U.S.-made electromagnetic catapults costing over $1.3 billion.
French industry groups estimate U.S.-sourced parts could total roughly €3 billion — far above the government’s official 10% figure.
France has quietly prepared a backup plan in case the U.S. blocks the export, a sign that even Paris sees the risk as real.
The tension mirrors a wider European problem: nations that preach defense independence keep buying critical systems from Washington.

A “Sovereign” Carrier Built on American Hardware

France is building the France Libre, an 85,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier meant to project French power for decades. The ship is central to President Macron’s vision of European defense independence. Yet the carrier’s launch system — the technology that physically throws jets into the sky — will be built by an American company. France confirmed it will install three Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapults made by General Atomics of California.

The U.S. State Department approved the sale in December 2021 through a Foreign Military Sale valued at $1.321 billion, covering the EMALS catapults, arresting gear to catch landing aircraft, and related equipment. The French Navy’s top admiral confirmed the EMALS order in August 2022. By 2026, France had locked in all three catapults, with the total carrier program cost now estimated at over €10 billion — and €7.3 billion already committed.

How Deep Does the Dependency Go?

The French government says U.S.-origin parts make up about 10% of the carrier’s total content. But France’s naval industry association, known as GICAN, tells a different story. The group estimates U.S.-sourced components — including the catapults, arresting gear, and U.S.-built E-2D Hawkeye radar planes that will fly from the deck — add up to roughly €3 billion. That gap between the official line and the industry estimate raises a fair question: is France being straight with its own citizens about the scale of this dependency?

A French Senate report from 2020 put the concern plainly. Two senators on the foreign affairs and defense committee wrote that installing EMALS brought reliance on the United States that seemed to contradict French autonomy. The same report found no immediate obstacles to using the technology — but the concern was noted in writing, at the highest levels of French government, years before the first catapult was ordered.

The Backup Plan Nobody Can Describe

France is not ignoring the risk entirely. Reports from early 2026 confirm the country has developed a fallback plan in case the U.S. refuses to deliver or restricts use of the EMALS system. That sounds reassuring — until you ask what the fallback actually is. No official has described it in public. There is no known domestic French EMALS program, no named alternative technology, and no published cost or timeline for a Plan B. The backup plan exists on paper, but its details remain hidden.

This is not just a French problem. Across Europe, nations pledging defense independence keep buying American. When the war in Ukraine forced European countries to rearm fast, they purchased roughly 63% of their new military equipment from the United States. France calls its new carrier a “guarantee of independence.” But a warship that cannot launch its aircraft without American-made catapults — and has no clear plan if that supply is cut — is a complicated symbol of sovereignty. The EMALS technology works well and makes the carrier more capable than its predecessor. The operational case for buying it is real. So is the strategic risk of depending on a foreign government’s goodwill to keep your flagship combat-ready.