French Navy Receives First 2 Upgraded ATL2 Maritime Patrol Aircraft

The French navy has received two ATL2 maritime patrol aircraft upgraded to Standard 6, Dassault Aviation announced Tuesday.

“This summer, Lann-Bihoué French naval air station received the first two ATL2 maritime patrol aircraft upgraded by Dassault Aviation,” Dassault said in a statement.

Last week, Florence Parly, Minister of the Armed Forces, flew on one of the two delivered aircraft.

Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) contracted Dassault to upgrade 18 of the navy’s aircraft in October 2013, while 11 other ATL2s will be upgraded by SIAé aeronautical maintenance center.

The upgrade work is performed by Dassault Aviation and Thales (co-contractors), in association with Naval Group and in cooperation with SIAé.

Dassault will supply five more modernised planes to the naval forces by 2023.

The upgraded planes are now equipped with Thales Search Master with active antenna, Thales acoustic subsystem to gather and process signals from the air-dropped sonobuoys for submarine detection, Dassault’s new navigation console, and  SIAé-designed consoles for the tactical display subsystem.