Designed from the outset as multi-role fleet carriers, the two "Clemenceau"-class ships initially in 1961 had an air group with ten aircraft each of the IVM attack version and IVP reconnaissance version of the Dassault Étendard IV strike fighter, a squadron of up to eight Breguet Alizé aircraft were embarked for the antisubmarine warfare mission, and in the air-defense role a squadron of Sud Aviation Aquilon (license-built de Havilland Sea Venom) fighters. They were also used for French amphibious assault operations with up to 30–40 helicopters (normal helicopter wing is 4 helicopters) deployed; just prior to the 1991 Gulf War as part of Operation Salamandre (the air component of Operation Daguet), "Clemenceau" ferried 30 Aérospatiale Gazelles and 12 Aérospatiale SA 330 Pumas to Saudi Arabia. The planned size of the total air wing was originally 60, but the increasing size of carrier-based aircraft in the late 1950s reduced that number to approximately 40.