During her visit in Dassault plant at Seclin today, French minister of Armed Forces purchased 7 Falcon 2000 Albatros
Dassault Aviation Falcon 2000 MRA
French Navy will obtain soon Dassault Aviation’s Falcone 2000, whose name inside Army will be « Albatros ». The goal is to replace Falcon 50 and Falcon 200, who will retire in 2025 and 2029.
Seven Albatros were purchased, and at the end of 2025 another five will be bought. Contract amount is 1.3 billions of euros, and includes twelve Falcon 2000 and maintenance by Dassault Aviation during ten years. Dassault promises jets availability rates of 80%. First three Falcon would be delivered in 2025, and other jet fighters until the beginning of the 2030’s, mentions ministry Staff.
Maritime surveillance
The acquisition of these new Falcon 2000 Albatros, whose configuration follows the studies carried out by Dassault Aviation as part of the AVSIMAR programme notified in 2018 by the DGA, will enable the fleet of maritime surveillance aircraft to be modernised. The Navy currently has five Falcon 200s stationed overseas, in Noumea and Tahiti, and eight Falcon 50s based in Lorient. The Albatros are characterised by higher performance than the Falcon 50 and 200. They have a range of 8 hours and an elongation of 2,900 nautical miles, compared with 6.5 hours and 2,700 nautical miles for the Falcon 50, and 5 hours and 2,000 nautical miles for the Falcon 200. They also carry modern sensors, adapted to the conduct of missions at sea. The mission information system is designed by Naval Group, the radar, the SearchMaster by Thales, and the EO/IR Euroflir, by Safran.
Made in India.
While the first three aircraft will be produced in France, it is planned that the next ones will be manufactured in India, more precisely in Nagpur, at the Dassault Reliance Aerospace (DRAL) plant, as part of the Make In India policy.
Based on the Falcon 2000 LXS, the development of the Albatros as part of the AVSIMAR programme was notified to Dassault Aviation by the DGA in November 2018. "This contract is part of a global approach aimed at rationalising the acquisition and support of specialised military aircraft, based on the design of Dassault Aviation's Falcon series business jets," reported the DGA at the time.
If you want to have more précisions, please see Air & Cosmos n°2712, who will be available in November 27th