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France Eyes Maritime Surveillance Upgrades
Nov 12, 2010
By Robert Wall
Le Bourget, France
The French navy is planning a major overhaul of its airborne maritime surveillance fleet, and the first elements of the strategy are starting to take shape.
The activity, due to unfold in the coming few years, involves several parallel paths that will extend the life of existing types but also introduce both new manned and unmanned systems.
A core element of the modernization thrust is the upgrade of Dassault Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft (MPA).
Dassault and Thales are talking with the French government about a contract to be signed before year-end to fully define the scope of the upgrade,
which aims to ensure the MPA will remain in service past 2030, industry officials note.
Most of the work will be associated with the mission system, although the exact plan is not going to be finalized until next year.
The Atlantiques are to receive a new digital sonobuoy acoustic processing system and upgrades to the mission computer and surveillance radar, says Jean-Francois Henriot, Thales vice president for airborne mission systems.
The company expects to integrate its Ocean Master maritime surveillance system on the MPA. Improvements in the electronic support measures suite are also on the drawing board.
The new equipment is designed to improve the ability to track threats, including submarine periscopes in high sea states.
The goal is to have the first upgraded aircraft in user hands in 2015.
The program is running behind the original plan, due to funding problems and the protracted process of defining the way forward.
Much of the program remains to be sorted out, including how many of the Atlantique 2s now in operation will be upgraded.
France maintains 27 of the aircraft, with 22 on the flight line.
In the long term, the Atlantique 2s will be augmented with a new maritime surveillance platform, known by the French acronym Avsimar, which is to lead to a new aircraft that would be fielded around 2015.
Financing has not yet been secured. Dassault and Thales, who have jointly conducted a mission assessment,
are proposing a Falcon 2000 business jet-based option for the mission, noting that France’s large overseas interests require a turbofan-based approach.
The primary mission would be monitoring sea lanes and combating illegal traffic, along with search-and-rescue and medical evacuation.
The Falcon 2000 staffing would include one or two mission system operators, another one or two observers and the pilot and copilot.
While the system is not primarily intended to attack targets, the Falcon 2000s would be equipped with two weapons stations under each wing,
the inner hardpoint with a 1,500-lb. payload capacity and the outer with a 1,000‑lb. capacity, says Daniel Fremont, a Dassault Aviation official.
The program is expected to begin with four aircraft, but the fleet would to grow to 14 as older maritime surveillance assets are phased out.
The projected development time line is 30-36 months, Fremont says.
The Falcon 2000 would serve as a replacement for the Nord N262, the Falcon 200 fleet and Falcon 50 maritime surveillance aircraft.
In the near term, though, the Falcon 50 fleet is still growing, as several French government VIP aircraft are being modified into surveillance aircraft to augment the four currently in that role.
The additional Falcon 50 upgrades include two aircraft, and there are options for two more to undergo the process.
The aircraft are being equipped with the Ocean Master radar, electro-optical payload and forward-looking infrared sensor, Henriot says.
Meanwhile, industry continues to watch French navy plans to field a vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned air vehicle (VTUAV).
Industry officials expect France to first pursue a smaller unmanned aircraft, ruling out offerings such as the Boeing Unmanned Little Bird or Northrop Grumman Fire Scout.
Thales is offering the French government an option, either the Schiebel Camcopter or the Saab Skeldar, if France wants a system with higher levels of flight redundancy.
The French navy’s performance requirements have not been spelled out.
The VTUAV requirement could be addressed through a cooperative program, Henriot suggests, particularly given the European Union’s counter-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa. With the French and Swedish naval participation in that mission, a Skeldar-based joint approach may have the edge.
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