DASSAULT ATLANTIQUE 2 (ATL-2)
Atlantique 2 of the French Navy. (Damian Allard)
 

ASW PATROL AIRCRAFT

HISTORY

In mid 1970s, because of the menace of USSR's warships and submarines becoming stronger than ever, the French Navy launched the Atlantique's program called ANG (Atlantic Nouvelle Génération/ Atlantic Next Generation) on March 9th 1977. On February 23rd 1978, fourty-two planes were planned to replace the old Atlantics. Two prototypes were built (two Atlantic 1s modified ; No42 and No69). The first prototype flew on May 8th 1981 at Toulouse-Blagnac, flown by Jacques Jesberger, Jean-Pierre Bussenot and Pierre Harquin. The production-line started in May 1984, twenty-eight aircraft were ordered by the Department of Defence to equip the ASW squadrons of the French navy ; production rate was only one aircraft a month .

The crew of the aircraft is composed by two pilots, a flight engineer, an observer, a radio-navigator, a defensive systems operator, a radar operator, a tactical coordinator, two sonar operators, two additional observers.

This aircraft was built in common by Dassault-Aviation, Dornier, MBB, Aérospatiale, Aeritalia, SABCA-SONACA. Twenty-eight aircraft were ordered for the French Navy, only twenty-two are in line. The first serial aircraft was delivered to the French navy in July 1989 and the last one in 1997. They should be modernized and upgraded into Atlantique 3 in 2007.

This aircraft is only used by the French Navy for many duties :

They are based at NAS Nîmes-Garons (21F squadron) and NAS Lann-Bihoué (23F squadron) ; some detachments are often sent to Djibouti. It has taken part in many operations over Yugoslavia : Sharp Vigilance during summer 92, Sharp Fence and Sharp Guard. Every year hundred of person along the French coastline are saved thanks to the Atlantiques, but the use of that kind of aircraft is really expensive that's why the French Navy stocked six of them and bought five Falcon 50 SURMAR.

 

SPECIFICATIONS
(US)
(FR)
LENGTH
110 ft 4 in
32. 62 m
WINGSPAN
122 ft 9 in
37. 30 m
HEIGHT
35 ft 9 in
10. 8 m
WEIGHTS
56 659 lb (empty)/ 101 850 lb (full)
25 700 kg (empty)/ 46 500 kg (full)
MAX SPEED
402 mph
648 km/ h
RANGE
4 900 nm
9 075 km
THRUST
12 206 ehp
9 098 kW

ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
  • Iguane radar.
  • FLIR (for night and low visibility operations) system.
  • Tango thermal-camera.
  • MAD (Magnetic Anomaly Detector) Crouzet DHAX 3.
  • 3 UHF, 2 VHF, 2 HF, AM and FM.
  • INS, GPS, Tacan, DME, VOR, ILS, IFF.
  • ARAR 13 detector.
  • DSAX 1 Sadang data processing of the sonobuoys.
  • link 11.

nota : the Atlantiques are also equipped with a photographic system composed by two TRT 35 cameras (three focal lengths : 75, 150 and 300 mm). This allows vertical and oblique photographs.

Cockpit of the Atlantique 2. (HP. Grolleau)

 

WEAPONS
  • R. 550 Magic air-to-air missile.
  • 2 AM-39 Exocet anti-ship missiles.
  • 8 Mk 46 torpedoes.
  • MU-90 Murène torpedo.
  • Sonobuoys.

Buoys of the Atlantique 2. (H. P. Grolleau)

  • Anti-submarine grenades and bombs.

nota : finally, the French Navy has not equipped its Atlantique fleet with Magic 2 AAM.

Atlantique 2 and its weapons. (D. Allard)

ENGINES

It is equipped with the same engines as the Atlantic 1 : two Rolls Royce Tyne RTY.20 Mk 21 turboprop. With those engines the aircraft is able to fly eighteen hours (fourteen for the P-3 Orion and the Nimrod MRA4).

Rolls Royce Tyne RTY.20 Mk 21 turboprop. (Damian Allard)

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