According to information published by Eunavfor on February 21, 2022, the French long-range Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft deployed in Djibouti is operating side-by-side Spanish Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft P3 ‘Cisne’.
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French maritime patrol aircraft Atlantique 2 (Picture source: Eunavfor)
In the framework of EUNAVFOR ATALANTA it can be tasked at short notice to provide imagery of a particular area of interest to enable the Force Commander to react to events and keep the waters of the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean safe for all maritime users.
France supports Operation ATALANTA with its latest version of the ATL2, Block 6. The crew arrived in the Area of Operation on January and is currently working in direct support of EU NAVFOR, providing additional capabilities.
With its new optical and RADAR sensors, the ATL2 Bk6 is able to gather a huge amount of information, detecting in the area up to 800 ships and visually identifying up to 200 of them, during a single patrol.
The Atlantique 2 or ATL2 is an updated version of the Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic, which was produced by Dassault Aviation for the French Navy in the 1980s.
It is a long-range maritime patrol aircraft designed and manufactured by French aircraft manufacturer Breguet Aviation.
The Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic is a twin-engined, mid-winged monoplane with a "double-bubble" fuselage; the upper lobe comprising a pressurized crew compartment, and the lower lobe housing a 9 m (27 ft 6 in) long weapons bay, with sonobuoy tubes aft of the weapons bay.
