President Hollande Makes Surprise Visit To French Aircraft Carrier Off Syria

Less than three weeks after declaring France was "at war" with the Islamic State, President François Hollande has made a surprise visit to the country's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, which is navigating off the coast of Syria and launching airstrikes on targets in the country.

France sent its sole carrier to the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the November, to be used as a base for conducting airstrikes against IS positions in Syria and Iraq.

Le président — Élysée (@Elysee)4 Décembre 2015

"President Hollande on board the Charles de Gaulle, meeting the troops that are fighting the Islamic State."

This is Hollande's first official visit to the theater of France's ongoing military operations against the insurgency. It is also the first time a French head of state visits the Charles de Gaulle while it is actively being used in a military intervention.

Accompanied by defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, the president addressed the 2,000 troops stationed aboard the aircraft carrier, and witnessed the catapult launch of Rafale and Super Etendard fighter jets.

The Charles de Gaulle, the flagship of the French navy and the world's only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier not operated by the United States, is loaded with 26 fighter jets – 18 Rafales and 8 Super Etendards.

Hollande's visit is conveniently timed just two days before Sunday's regional elections. Latest polls suggest France's anti-immigration National Front will make sweeping gains in the first round of the polls, with poor predictions for Hollande's Socialist Party.

The predictions come despite wartime Hollande enjoying his highest popularity since 2012, thanks to his hardline stance in the aftermath of the November 13 terror attacks, which left 130 people dead in and around Paris.

According to the latest figures released by French pollster IFOP, Hollande has been enjoying 50 percent approval since France stepped up its military efforts against IS.

President Hollande, who was once rejected from compulsory military service because he was too short-sighted – he argued his way back in – has emerged as an unlikely commander-in-chief since the November attacks, during which three commandos of gunmen carried out a deadly rampage.

Speaking on the morning following the carnage, Hollande described the attacks as "an act of war perpetrated by a terrorist army," echoing Bush's "war on terror" address to a joint session of congress in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Within days of the attacks, Hollande declared a state of national emergency and retaliated with airstrikes against IS targets in the insurgency's self-declared capital of Raqqa.

According to French daily Le Monde, French aircraft have dropped 680 bombs since the 2014 launch of Operation Chammal – the name given to France's military intervention in Iraq and Syria.

Officials say that, as of December 3, French air force and navy aircraft have "made 2,500 overflights, [carried out] 321 airstrikes and destroyed 580 targets" in the two countries. Military sources cited by Le Monde said that France has recently ordered several hundred guided bomb units from the United States to replenish its depleted munitions stock.

But appearances on nuclear-powered aircraft carriers have not always done wonders for the popularity of heads of state.

In May 2003, just two months after the start of the Iraq war, then president George W. Bush landed on US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to announce the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

Already facing tremendous backlash over his decision to go to war and for his handling of the US invasion, Bush was ridiculed for his premature speech, which was held against the backdrop of a patriotic "Mission Accomplished" banner.

Despite that victory cry, Iraq's defeated armed forces were replaced with an insurgency, and US troops would not withdraw from the country for another eight years.