The sighting of a group of casually dressed young men and women, speaking French and enjoying a meal in the Apostolis restaurant on the old harbour in Chania, was a clue that the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was visiting the NATO naval base at Marathi last weekend. Tied up at dock K14, which was recently enlarged and is claimed to be the only dock in the Mediterranean which can accommodate a nuclear aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle is the flagship of the French fleet and the only non-US nuclear carrier currently in operation.

Completed in the year 2000 at a cost of €3 billion, the carrier is 261.5 m long, 64.36 m wide and has a maximum speed of 27 knots (50km/h). It has a complement of 1,350 crew and can carry 30 Rafale fighter jets plus assorted reconnaissance aircraft and helicopters, which are flown and serviced by an additional 600 personnel. It can also transport 800 marines and 5,000 tonnes of ammunition.

Also at Souda over the weekend was the Spanish amphibious assault ship/aircraft carrier Juan Carlos I, a (slightly) smaller, conventionally powered vessel of 230.82 m length and 32 m beam, which was moored at the cruise ship dock on the other side of the bay. Commissioned in 2010 at a final cost of €462 million, the Juan Carlos is driven by a combination of diesel-electric and gas turbine power and has a maximum speed of 21 knots (39 km/h). The complement of the ship is around 900 naval personnel, with equipment and support elements for 1,200 soldiers. Like many modern aircraft carriers, it has a “ski-jump” ramp at the bow for V/STOL (vertical or short take-off and landing) aircraft such as the second-generation Harrier and the F35. The ship can carry 30 helicopters or a mix of V/STOL Harriers and rotary wing aircraft. A derivation of the Juan Carlos’s design, constructed at the Sedef shipyard in Istanbul and expected to be commissioned in 2023, is the TCG Anadolou, the Turkish Navy’s first aircraft carrier.

Also at the naval base at Marathi were the 230 m troop-carrying ship and floating base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams, which is a regular visitor to Souda, as well as the Greek frigates Adrias and Psara.

The vessels are taking part in the Antares Mission, a NATO joint exercise which began in November and is basically a show of strength in the Mediterranean in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine. It currently involves five different aircraft carriers plus assorted support ships. Taking part in addition to the French and Spanish carriers are the US Navy’s USS George HW Bush (recently moored off Piraeus), the Italian Cavour, and the UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth, the latter replacing its newly-commissioned sister ship HMS Prince of Wales, which was withdrawn from service in August 2022 following a failure of one of its propeller shafts and is expected to return to service in the spring of this year.

The strong NATO presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, and particularly at Souda, has aroused vocal opposition from Greek anti-war elements. On Friday afternoon the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) organised a demonstration in front of the Agora in Chania, handing out leaflets to passers-by and shouting slogans against war, against imperialism and against NATO.

In a statement to the press, KKE Secretary Spiros Agrimakis said that the demonstration was being held “to declare our steadfast opposition to the mooring of NATO ships on the responsibility of the government, which is involving us ever more closely in the war in Ukraine, to conflict and to plans for war in the Southeast Mediterranean. Souda is hosting military equipment and toxic waste, vast expansion works are under way at the base, which is an important centre for NATO’s imperialist interventions in the region. It is unacceptable for our people to be targeted by the adversaries of the US (Russia and China), and for us to be embroiled in ever greater dangers.”
(Haniotika Nea, 18^th February 2023)