France's Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) announced delivery of the 18th and final aircraft. As a result, it has improved capabilities for countering submarines and controlling various maritime areas.
Recall these aircraft are successors to the Breguet Br. 1150 Atlantic, whose history began in the 1950s. Besides the French, they were used by Germans, Italians, Dutch, and Pakistanis, but were eventually retired due to age.
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At the same time, France in the 1980s developed and began production of a new iteration, Atlantique 2, which serves to this day. Modernization of 18 such aircraft to Standard 6 was ordered in October 2013, almost 13 years ago.
Upgraded aircraft received new Thales Searchmaster radars and an acoustic system from Thales that collects and processes information from buoys for submarine detection.
New consoles for navigation and tactical information display subsystems were also installed.
The first seven modernized Dassault Aviation aircraft were delivered from 2019 to 2023. The remaining 11 were handled by the French state aircraft repair organization SIAé, which actually completed program execution.
Recall that Atlantique 2, or ATL2, is also used to support Ukraine within the French contingent deployed in Romania. Defense Express previously covered this in detail along with the aircraft's history.
In 2035, these patrol and anti-submarine aircraft are to be replaced by Airbus A321 MPA. For patrol tasks, simpler Falcon 2000 LXS Albatros are also being procured to help counter russia and China.
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