The
Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic is a long-range
reconnaissanceAerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance that is conducted using unmanned aerial vehicles or reconnaissance aircraft. Their roles are to collect imagery intelligence, signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence...
aircraft, primarily designed for use over the sea. It is used in several
NATO countries as a
reconnaissanceA surveillance aircraft is an aircraft used for surveillance — collecting information over time. They are operated by military forces and other government agencies in roles such as intelligence gathering, battlefield surveillance, airspace surveillance, observation , border patrol and fishery...
and patrol aircraft as well as anti-submarine aircraft. The Atlantic is also capable of carrying air-to-ground missiles. An updated version - the
Atlantique 2 - was produced for the
French NavyThe French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
in the 1980s.
Design and development
In 1958
NATO produced a specification for a long range maritime patrol aircraft to replace the Lockheed Neptune, with Breguet's design, the Br 1150, chosen as the winner of the competition at the end of the year, and a multi-national consortium,
Société d'Étude et de Construction de Breguet Atlantic (SECBAT) set up to develop and build the Atlantic.
The first prototype made its maiden flight at
ToulouseToulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
on 21 October 1961, with the second prototype flying on 25 February 1962, followed by two pre-production aircraft, with a longer fuselage in February 1963 and September 1964.
The Atlantic is a twin-engined, mid-winged
monoplaneA monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...
with a "double-bubble" fuselage, with the upper lobe comprising a
pressurisedCabin pressurization is the pumping of compressed air into an aircraft cabin to maintain a safe and comfortable environment for crew and passengers when flying at altitude.-Need for cabin pressurization:...
crew compartment, and the lower lobe housing a 9 m (27 ft 6 in) long weapons bay, with
sonobuoyA sonobuoy is a relatively small expendable sonar system that is dropped/ejected from aircraft or ships conducting anti-submarine warfare or underwater acoustic research....
tubes aft of the weapons bay. A
radarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
scanner is housed in a retractable underfuselage
radomeA radome is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a microwave or radar antenna. The radome is constructed of material that minimally attenuates the electromagnetic signal transmitted or received by the antenna. In other words, the radome is transparent to radar or radio waves...
, while a
magnetic anomaly detectorA magnetic anomaly detector is an instrument used to detect minute variations in the Earth's magnetic field. The term refers specifically to magnetometers used by military forces to detect submarines ; the military MAD gear is a descendent of geomagnetic survey instruments used to search for...
is housed in a tail boom. Power is by two
Rolls-Royce Tyne
turbopropA turboprop engine is a type of turbine engine which drives an aircraft propeller using a reduction gear.The gas turbine is designed specifically for this application, with almost all of its output being used to drive the propeller...
engines.
The Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic has been designed for its purpose, instead of refitting or modifying existing designs. Though the primary mission of the
Atlantic is anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, its secondary role includes search and rescue, mine laying and detection, and long-range maritime surveillance.
The Atlantic can carry either eight guided ASW
torpedoThe modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
es such as Mk 46 Torpedo or 12 depth charges or two AM.39 Exocet Anti-Ship missiles in its internal
bomb bayThe bomb bay or weapons bay on some military aircraft is a compartment to carry bombs, usually in the aircraft's fuselage, with "bomb bay doors" which open at the bottom. The bomb bay doors are opened and the bombs are dropped when over the target or at a specified launching point.Large-sized...
. German Atlantic usually carried Mk 46s only and flew unarmed during the last years of their service.
An initial order for 60 Atlantics, 40 for France and 20 for Germany, was placed in 1963, with deliveries starting in 1965 and continuing to 1968. The production line had shut down by the time that the Netherlands placed an order for nine Atlantics and Italy ordered 18. Aircraft from this second production batch were delivered from 1972 to 1974.
In 1978, the French Government authorised development of a new, updated version of the Atlantic, the
Atlantic Nouvelle Generation (later known as the Atlantique 2 when orders from other nations did not occur). While airframe and engines of the new aircraft changed little, other equipment and avionics were considerably revised, with a new radar, a new sonar processor and tactical computer, with a FLIR turret under the nose. The ability to carry Exocet missiles was also added. Two prototype Atlantique 2s were produced by converting existing Atlantics, with the first flying on 8 May 1981, with production being authorised on 24 May 1984. Deliveries started in 1989, with 28 eventually built, from an original requirement for 42.
Operational history
The Royal Netherlands Navy lost three Atlantics out of nine aircraft in a series of failures over the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in the grounding of the type in 1981 and its eventual replacement by the
P-3 OrionThe Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engine turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner. The aircraft is easily recognizable by its distinctive tail stinger or...
. The German
MarinefliegerThe Marineflieger is the naval air arm of the German Navy.-History:During the First World War, naval aviators were part of the Kaiserliche Marine...
never lost a single plane from 1963 to 2005, although one was written off in an accident. The German Atlantics were replaced by the same P-3 Orion
airframeThe airframe of an aircraft is its mechanical structure. It is typically considered to include fuselage, wings and undercarriage and exclude the propulsion system...
s the Netherlands had bought in the 1980s to replace the Atlantic, however meanwhile these aircraft were significantly modernized and upgraded, making them state-of-art maritime patrol aircraft.
In 1999, a
Pakistan NavyThe Pakistan Navy is the naval warfare/service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Pakistan's Navy is responsible for Pakistan's coastline along the Arabian Sea and the defense of important civilian harbors and military bases...
Atlantic was shot down by
Indian Air ForceThe Indian Air Force is the air arm of the Indian armed forces. Its primary responsibility is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during a conflict...
MiG-21s after they failed to force it to land at an Indian base, raising tensions in the region, in what was dubbed the
Atlantique IncidentThe Atlantique Incident was an event in which a Pakistan Navy's Naval Air Arm Breguet Atlantique patrol plane, carrying 16 people on board, was shot down by the Indian Air Force for alleged violation of airspace...
. Disobeying instructions from the MiG pilots, the Atlantic maneuvered to escape from them and was shot down by a heat-seeking air-to-air missile over the Rann of Kutch region.
Several German Atlantics have been donated to museums, including the
Luftwaffenmuseum and the Dutch Air Force Museum, Soesterberg, Netherlands.
A Breguet Atlantic, referred to in news reports as an Atlantic Model 2, was used by the French Army in the search for parts of
Air France Flight 447Air France Flight 447 was a scheduled airline flight from Rio de Janeiro-Galeão to Paris-Roissy involving an Airbus A330-200 aircraft that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009, killing all 216 passengers and 12 aircrew. The investigation is still ongoing, and the cause of the...
.
Accidents and incidents
- May 18, 1986 - While flying through a cloud-covered sky, a French Navy Atlantic crashed into a mountain in Djibouti
Djibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
, killing all 19 people on board.
- August 10, 1999 - At the Pakistani-Indian border, 16 Pakistani Naval airmen were killed in the Atlantique Incident
The Atlantique Incident was an event in which a Pakistan Navy's Naval Air Arm Breguet Atlantique patrol plane, carrying 16 people on board, was shot down by the Indian Air Force for alleged violation of airspace...
, just a month after the Kargil WarThe Kargil War ,, also known as the Kargil conflict, was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control...
.
Operators
- French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
- French Naval Aviation - The original model was retired in 1996. Second generation Atlantique 2 in service.
- German Navy
The German Navy is the navy of Germany and is part of the unified Bundeswehr .The German Navy traces its roots back to the Imperial Fleet of the revolutionary era of 1848 – 52 and more directly to the Prussian Navy, which later evolved into the Northern German Federal Navy...
- Received 20 Atlantics, with five converted as ELINT aircraft. Replaced all ASW aircraft by ex-Dutch P-3 Orion in 2005, while the remaining ELINT version will be replaced by the EuroHawks.
- Italian Navy
Italian Navy may refer to:* Pre-unitarian navies of the Italian states* Regia Marina, the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Italy * Italian Navy , the navy of the Italian Republic...
- Flown by pilots from the Italian Air ForceThe Italian Air Force has gone under different names in different periods:*Regia Aeronautica , from 1923 to June 1946*Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana, the air force of Italian Social Republic during World War II...
and navy, but commanded by the navy.
- Royal Netherlands Navy
The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
- Dutch Naval Aviation Service - Replaced by the P-3 Orion
The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engine turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner. The aircraft is easily recognizable by its distinctive tail stinger or...
.
- Pakistan Navy
The Pakistan Navy is the naval warfare/service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Pakistan's Navy is responsible for Pakistan's coastline along the Arabian Sea and the defense of important civilian harbors and military bases...
- Pakistan Naval Air Arm
The Pakistan Naval Air Arm is the naval aviation branch of the Pakistan Navy.The Naval Air Arm is tasked to carry out air surveillance, limited aerial warfare, and reconnaissance operations...
Specifications (Atlantique 2)
See also
External links