Charles de Gaulle Moves into the Atlantic for ORION 26

The French Navy has discreetly deployed its flagship, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, to the Atlantic Ocean for a months-long wargame examining how France and its allies could fight - and sustain - a major modern conflict on Europe’s doorstep.

France’s flagship moves west for a high-stakes exercise

On 5 February 2026, the French Navy announced that the Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group had moved from the Mediterranean into the Atlantic for ORION 26, France’s largest high-intensity joint and allied exercise.

The group had sailed from its home base in Toulon on 27 January. Following an initial Mediterranean training phase, it has now joined a national operational manoeuvre spanning French territory, airspace, nearby waters, cyberspace and even space-based assets.

ORION 26 is designed to rehearse how France would lead and sustain a multinational coalition in a major conventional conflict on European soil.

The Atlantic is a key setting in this scenario. It will host naval, air and amphibious operations, while also testing the defence of reinforcement routes from North America and other European allies.

Inside ORION 26: a fictional war with real-world parallels

ORION 26 centres on an invented conflict that will seem strikingly familiar to European security planners.

In the exercise narrative, an expansionist country named Mercure seeks to dominate neighbouring Arnland and prevent it from moving towards European Union membership. During 2025, Mercure employs hybrid methods, including online information pressure, political coercion and backing for armed militias active within Arnland.

The crisis subsequently develops into open conflict.

On 6 January 2026, France assumes the political and military leadership of a coalition, at Arnland’s request, to protect the smaller nation’s sovereignty. That choice begins ORION 26’s military stages, which progress through several levels of confrontation:

• Sub-threshold friction and hybrid actions
• Escalation and deterrence failure
• High-intensity conventional warfare

French and allied forces are required to operate simultaneously on land, at sea, in the air, in cyberspace and in space. The scenario also incorporates civilian pressures, including threats to critical infrastructure, public services and national resilience.

The exercise deliberately mirrors current patterns in Eastern Europe, without naming any real country, to keep planning both realistic and politically manageable.

ORION 26 scale: preparing for a NATO-level conflict

Running from 8 February until 30 April 2026, ORION 26 involves 24 countries and around 10,000 personnel deployed across several French regions and their maritime approaches.

Land, sea and air forces committed

The forces assigned show that this is far from a routine exercise:

• 1 carrier strike group centred on Charles de Gaulle
• 2 amphibious helicopter carriers
• 25 major surface combatants
• 50 fixed-wing combat aircraft
• 1 army corps-level headquarters commanding 3 combined-arms brigades
• Around 2,150 tactical vehicles
• 40 helicopters and roughly 1,200 combat and specialist drones
• 2 medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) drones
• 6 ground-based air defence systems
• 20 space sensors linked into the SparteX 2026 space command network

Cyber operations run throughout the exercise, connecting both simulated and real incidents with battlefield effects. French cyber forces train to defend networks as well as carry out controlled offensive or influence operations.

ORION 26’s four connected phases

Phase	Main focus
O.1	Operational planning and translation of political goals into a joint campaign under French command
O.2	Coalition deployment and entry into a contested theatre, including early high-intensity engagements
O.3	Interministerial wargame on home-front resilience, civil protection, and continuity of state functions
O.4	Integration of French forces into a NATO command structure and rehearsal of alliance-level decision-making

Rather than focusing on short, isolated drills, the exercise is designed to test endurance. Commanders must maintain logistics, rebuild combat capability and continuously coordinate major formations over several weeks.

French headquarters are placed in a role similar to a NATO joint force command, testing their ability to run a coalition fight under real pressure.

The Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group’s Atlantic role

The Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group is a crucial element of the maritime component. During ORION 26, its missions include fleet air defence, anti-submarine warfare, long-range strike operations and air support for ground forces.

Before heading into the Atlantic, the group completed an intensive Mediterranean exercise programme, including:

• Air-defence training involving French Air and Space Force jets and French Navy aircraft
• Anti-submarine and surface warfare exercises against simulated threats
• Replenishment at sea with the Italian destroyer Andrea Doria
• A cross-deck helicopter evolution in which an Italian SH-90 landed on the French carrier

These activities may be less eye-catching than combat imagery, but they are essential for improving procedures, radio discipline and the human dimension of interoperability between naval forces.

Which vessels and aircraft make up the group?

The French Navy has not published the complete force composition, although vessels reported to have departed Toulon on 27 January include:

• Aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle
• Air-defence frigate Alsace
• Horizon-class destroyer Chevalier Paul
• Italian destroyer Andrea Doria
• Replenishment ship Jacques Chevallier
• A nuclear-powered attack submarine (escort, not named)

This combination provides air defence, anti-submarine protection and logistical support. The carrier is operating around 20 Rafale Marine fighter jets, tasked with air policing, escort duties and precision strikes under the exercise scenario.

For many NATO planners, Charles de Gaulle is a rare European asset: a CATOBAR carrier able to launch heavy, fully armed jets with catapults.

Charles de Gaulle: the technical core of French power projection

Commissioned in 2001, Charles de Gaulle remains France’s sole nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Its principal specifications are:

• Full-load displacement: roughly 42,500 tonnes
• Length: 261.5 metres
• Flight deck beam: 64.4 metres
• Draught at full load: about 9.5 metres
• Propulsion: two K15 pressurised-water nuclear reactors driving two shafts
• Maximum speed: around 27 knots
• Air group capacity: up to 40 aircraft (Rafale Marine, E-2C Hawkeye and helicopters)

The vessel has a CATOBAR system - catapult assisted take-off but arrested recovery - comprising two 75-metre steam catapults and arresting wires. This enables fully loaded fighter aircraft and early-warning aircraft to be launched, a capability that remains uncommon outside US navies.

Its defensive fit includes Aster 15 surface-to-air missiles, Mistral short-range missiles fired from Sadral launchers, Narwhal 20mm remotely operated guns, and an electronic-warfare suite integrated with the SENIT 8 combat management system. The ship’s company and air wing can together number about 2,000 personnel.

In operational service, the carrier has undertaken combat deployments over Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Syria, providing French commanders with practical experience of directing complex sea-based air campaigns.

Why ORION 26 is important for NATO and European defence

Although ORION 26 is not formally branded as a NATO exercise, its structure is plainly designed with the alliance in view. By placing French headquarters at the centre of coalition command, Paris is demonstrating that it can offer a credible operational foundation during a crisis.

The exercise also examines the less visible practical issues: ammunition reserves, maintenance cycles, fuel supplies at sea and political tensions within shared command arrangements. Such weaknesses can determine whether a coalition operation endures or unravels after its opening weeks.

For allies watching from London, Washington or Warsaw, ORION 26 is a live laboratory for how a European-led response to a serious crisis might actually function.

Key terms and concepts behind the exercise

Several terms associated with ORION 26 merit clarification:

• High-intensity warfare: combat against a capable state adversary with modern air defences, electronic warfare, long-range missiles and sizeable land forces. Casualties, ammunition consumption and equipment attrition are considerably greater than in counter-insurgency operations.
• Hybrid actions: approaches that fall between peace and declared war, including cyberattacks against infrastructure, disinformation campaigns, covert support for militias and targeted economic coercion.
• Multi-domain operations: coordinated activity across land, sea, air, cyber and space, in which developments in one domain - such as a cyberattack - can affect results in another, including the effectiveness of air defences.

Realistically simulating these conditions compels armed forces to abandon habits developed during more limited operations. Air crews, for instance, must plan for communications to be jammed, GPS signals to be spoofed or air bases to come under attack from long-range missiles.

Exercises of this size also involve risks: substantial cost, considerable equipment strain and the possibility that observers or adversaries could misinterpret military signalling. However, they give political leaders a more accurate understanding of what their forces can deliver if deterrence fails, and where further investment or allied reinforcements would be required.