French Navy’s new Falcon 2000LXS Albatros aircraft performs maiden flight

Photo taken by regional airplane watchman Raphaël Savry reveal the Falcon 2000LXS with tail number “F-WATM” and “Albatros” composed on the side of the body, doing its initial trip at Bordeaux-Mérignac flight terminal on January 24, 2025.

As prepared in the army programs regulation ( Loi de programmation militaire– LPM) 2019-2025, the French MoD introduced in November 220 after a years of hold-up the AVSIMAR ( Avions de Security et d’Intervention Maritime— Naval monitoring and treatment airplane) program called “Albatros” with the preliminary order for 7 airplane to be supplied from 2025 out of the prepared overall of 12. In 2025, as reported by Naval News, the 2nd agreement for the last 5 AVSIMAR need to be authorized if the residential national politics continue to be steady.

Based Upon the Falcon 2000LXS– a variation of the Falcon 2000 maritime monitoring airplane (MSA) provided by Dassault currently gotten by the Japanese Shore Guard in 2015- the Albatros is readied to change previous generations of maritime monitoring airplane in solution with the French Navy like the Falcon 50 and Guardian.

The brand-new LXS supplies 4,000 maritime miles (7,410 kilometres) array, contrasted to 3,240 nm (6000 kilometres) for the tradition Falcon 2000. In the MSA version, the LXS has the ability to patrol for 7 hours, 200 maritime miles from the shore. That’s greater than two times the functional variety of the in-service Falcon 200 Guardian, and it’s also far better than the three-engined Falcon 50M. This efficiency increase is crucial as these airplanes are based in French abroad regions. As an example, the Albatros will certainly currently have the ability to link straight 2 French command areas in the South Pacific, specifically Brand-new Caledonia (COMSUP FANC) and Tahiti (ALPACI).

Pertaining to the airplane functions, the radar fairing holds the Thales Searchmaster radar which resembles the radar fitted on the ATL2 maritime patrol airplane (following they update). Paired with the Euroflir 410 EO/IR system by Safran, the monitoring capacities will certainly be significantly improved. Unlike the Japanese Shore Guard, the objective system will not be provided by L3 Technologies however by French shipbuilder Naval Team. The airplane will certainly likewise gain from most recent generation INS and anti-jamming general practitioners, enabling it to run in disputed locations– significantly over the French regions of the Pacific area. SATCOM will certainly likewise be fitted with L22 data-link. As on the Falcon 50M and Guardian prior to, the Albatros will certainly have the ability to release rescue devices from the cabin of the airplane.

Being based upon the Falcon 2000LXS, the Albatros will certainly take advantage of great reduced rate reduced elevation taking care of for rescue procedures, while still having the ability to pass time a long period of time at high elevation for search jobs. The efficiency and integrity of its PW308C engines likewise make it possible for fast “boom and zoom”, when the airplane rotates reduced elevation aesthetic examination stages and high elevation radar/optical vast check.

Manufacturing in India

For their building and construction, as previously reported by Naval News, the very first 3 airplane are being integrated in France at Dassault Aeronautics’s major manufacturing center in Bordeaux-Mérignac. Nonetheless the 4 complying with airframes will certainly be put together in India. Dassault Aeronautics has actually prepared to move the Falcon 2000 production line from Mérignac to Nagpur, in the brand-new manufacturing facility of Dassault Dependence Aerospace Limited (DRAL). Keep in mind that all the airframes created in Nagpur will fly to Mérignac in order to be transformed to army criterion.

To learn more about AVSIMAR program, check out our in-depth feature:

The article French Navy’s new Falcon 2000LXS Albatros aircraft performs maiden flight showed up initially on Naval News.