Clemenceau () was the French Navy's sixth aircraft carrier and the lead ship of her class. The carrier served from 1961 to 1997, and was dismantled and recycled in 2009. The carrier was the second French warship to be named after Georges Clemenceau, the first being a laid down in 1939 but never finished. Clemenceau and her sister ship served as the mainstays of the French fleet. During the carrier's career, Clemenceau sailed more than during 3,125 days at sea. She was equipped to handle nuclear munitions to be delivered by her air complement, and was later modified to fire nuclear-capable missiles. She took part in numerous exercises and cruises, seeing action during the Lebanese Civil War, Gulf War and in air operations over the former Yugoslavia. Description The development of Clemenceau represented France's effort to produce its own class of multi-role aircraft carriers to replace the American and British ships provided at the end of World War II. The ship had a small but effective design, using some of the elements of United States carriers, but on a smaller scale. The vessels were given relatively heavy gun armament for their size, and some stability problems were encountered which required bulging the hull. The Clemenceau-class aircraft carriers are of conventional CATOBAR design. The landing area was long by wide; it was angled at 8 degrees off of the ship's axis. The flight deck is long. The forward aircraft elevator was to starboard, and the rear elevator was positioned on the deck edge to save hangar space. The forward of two catapults was at the bow to port, the aft catapult was on the angled landing deck. The hangar deck dimensions were by with overhead. Clemenceau went through a major refit from September 1977 to November 1978. She was refitted again with new defensive systems from 1September 1985 to 31August 1987, this included the replacement of four of the 100 mm guns with a pair of Crotale surface-to-air missile launchers. She was modified in 1978 to enable her aircraft to deliver several AN 52 bombs. In 1993 she was modified again to take nuclear capable Air-Sol Moyenne Portée missiles. History Career Throughout the course of the aircraft carrier's lengthy career, it participated in the majority of French naval operations. From 12January to 5February 1962, Clemenceau participated in a NATO exercise known as BigGame with the United States Sixth Fleet in the