France hands over aircraft carrier to Brazil

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- France turned over the aircraft carrier Foch on Wednesday to Brazil, which is renaming it the Sao Paulo and will refit it to handle American-made planes.

The carrier, which had been in service with the French navy for some 40 years and is still in good operating condition, was sold for 80 million French francs ($10.49 million).

The vessel, now in the western port of Brest, will set sail for Rio de Janeiro in early February after maintenance work requested by Brazil to meet its specifications and to adapt it to serve U.S.-made Skyhawk attack planes.

The main combat aircraft flown by the Foch was the French-made Super-Etendard fighter-bomber.

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