French Navy Receives Third Upgraded ATL2 Maritime Patrol Aircraft

The first two ATL2 aircraft upgraded to “standard 6” were delivered in October last year. The contract for the standard 6 upgrade was awarded by the french armament general directorate (DGA) on October 4, 2013. It covers a fleet of 18 aircraft. Dassault Aviation will deliver a further four upgraded ATL2s until 2023. In parallel, the SIAé aeronautical maintenance center will upgrade 11 aircraft.

About ATL2 Standard 6 MPA

The “Standard 6” upgrade work includes:

• A new radar: The Thales Search Master with active antenna,
• A new acoustic subsystem by Thales: It gathers and processes signals from the latest-generation of sonobuoys for submarine detection,
• A new navigation console designed by Dassault Aviation,
• New consoles for the tactical display subsystem, developed by SIAé

The upgrade work is performed by Dassault Aviation and Thales (co-contractors), in association with Naval Group and in cooperation with SIAé. Architect of the combat system, Dassault Aviation is as well responsible for development of the core system including LOTI[1] software designed by Naval Group. Dassault Aviation is also in charge of overall integration of all subsystems.

All the specifications for this program were established using the PLM Systèmes tool as part of a Dassault Aviation-Thales-Naval Group-SIAé collaborative work platform installed at St-Cloud in the Dassault Aviation design office.

The standard 6 upgrade will improve the ATL2s’ capability to support the Strategic Oceanic Force, to deal with modern threats (future nuclear or conventional submarines, naval forces at sea, etc.) and to support air-land missions, until 2030.

France is one of the very few countries producing high-technology maritime patrol aircraft combining detection (optronics, radar, acoustics) with a variety of weapons (anti-ship missiles, torpedoes, laser-guided weapons).