How Many Aircraft Carriers Does Europe Own?
What’s Europe’s Largest Aircraft Carrier and how many do they own?
Well in total Europe has six carriers
Britain and Italy have two each with France and Spain having just one.
The smallest of the lot is the Spanish Juan Carlos I. This is a multi-purpose carrier with only a 202m flight deck. However, that doesn’t really matter as it can still carry 12 Harriers or F-35s all fitted of STOVL or VTOL systems, as well as another 10-12 helicopters.
It also doubles up as an amphibious landing ship and costs $835M to make.
On the flip side, the largest of europe's carriers is that of HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. These relatively new additions have a much longer 280m flight deck and can carry up to 60 aircraft such as the newly purchased F-35Bs and cost £3.9 Billion each.
But there is one other shining star of europe's fleet, France’s Charles De Gaulle. This is Europe's only Nuclear powered carrier and the only non US carrier to have a catapult launch system allowing the likes of FA18E/F super hornets or C-2 Greyhounds to take off. But this did come with a cost about $5.5 billion in today's money to be exact.
But sadly when it comes to carriers, the US still dwarfs europe having the records for the world’s largest and most expensive carrier and the most amount of carriers at 11, all of which are nuclear powered.