French Navy received their sixth modernised ATL2
The Marine Nationale (Aeronautique Navale, French Navy) recently received its sixth modernised Atlantic 2 (ATL2) Standard 6 long-range maritime patrol aircraft (MPA). The aircraft is used for naval safeguard, electronic warfare and intelligence.
By 2024, a total of eighteen ATL2s will be renovated under the current Loi de Programmation Militaire (LPM). This LPM runs for a period of seven years, from 2019 to 2025, and is dedicated to the renovation and modernisation of the infrastructures and equipment of the armed forces.
The modernised ATL2 was handed over to the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) on 21 December 2021. The next day it was delivered to Lorient/Lann-Bihoué to take up service with one of the two dedicated MPA squadrons, 21 Flotille or 23 Flotille.
During the Euronaval 2018 show, the Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, announced that the ATL2 would be thoroughly modernised with new display consoles, a more efficient sensor, and the Thales Searchmaster radar. The project also includes the modernisation of anti-submarine warfare with a new digital acoustic processing subsystem.
The ATL2 regularly supports land and air-land operations, as is the case in Mali or the Middle East area. It also often operates together with France's Sous-Marin Nucléaire Lanceur d'Engins (SNLE, nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines). As part of Europe's Operation AGÉNOR, an ATL2 Standard 6, operated by 21F and temporarily based in the UAE from 20 July to 6 September 2021, made twenty operational flights patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz.
The first live firing exercise for the aircraft was performed in June 2020, when it fired a laser-guided bomb and an AM39 anti-ship combat missile in the same week.
Photos by Marine Nationale