In 1987, a single
Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Atlanique was operated by France as an airborne headquarters during
Opération Épervier, the French intervention against
Libyan military units which had been deployed into neighbouring
Chad. Communications intercepted by the Atlantique were immediately decoded and translated before being used to conduct strikes upon Libyan forces with greater accuracy. The German
Marineflieger operated a fleet of Atlantics between 1963 and 2005. A number of these aircraft were modified for SIGINT work and were based at
Nordholz Naval Airbase. During the
Cold War, they commonly flew across the
Baltic Sea and along the border with
East Germany; these flights often had American and British intelligence personnel on board in addition to their German crews. During the 1990s, Germany deployed SIGINT Atlantics to observe the
United Nations embargo of
Yugoslavia and for reconnaissance flights during the
Kosovo War in 1999. In 1992, Germany was considering replacing its Atlantics in the maritime patrol role, the modernised Atlantic-2 was considered to be a frontrunner to be the replacement. In 1996, the planned procurement of a replacement was delayed in favour of a life extension program to enable the Atlantic fleet to continue in service for a further decade. Germany ultimately elected to replace its Atlantics with a number of secondhand
Lockheed P-3 Orions procured from the Netherlands. Several German Atlantics have been donated to museums, including the
Militärhistorisches Museum Flugplatz Berlin-Gatow and the Dutch Air Force Museum, Soesterberg, Netherlands. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Atlantic competed with the Lockheed P-3 Orion to be selected as the Royal Netherlands Navy's next anti-submarine aircraft. The selection process, during which
Lockheed Corporation was alleged to have engaged in multiple incidents of
bribery, ultimately chose the Atlantic. Fewer Atlantics were procured than originally planned however; and a total of three Atlantics out of the Netherlands' nine-strong fleet were lost through a series of failures during missions over the Atlantic Ocean. These losses resulted in the grounding of the type in 1981 and contributed to its eventual replacement by the P-3 Orion. During
NATO's intervention in the 1999
Kosovo War, French Atlantics performed overflying surveillance flights of the combat area; flights within
Serbian airspace were conducted by unarmed aircraft. In 1973, in the aftermath of the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the
Pakistan Navy opted to procure three Atlantics from France. In 1999, a Pakistan Navy Atlantic inadvertently flew into Indian airspace while probing Indian air defenses and was intercepted and shot down by
Indian Air Force MiG-21FL after the Atlantic ignored instructions and attempts to force it to land at an Indian base; the event become known as the
Atlantique incident. After 36 years of service, Pakistan's remaining Atlantics were formally retired in September 2012, following the arrival of P-3 Orions to replace them. In 2009, French Atlantics were dispatched to
Dakar, Senegal, to participate in a multinational search effort to locate the crashed
Air France Flight 447. In January 2013, French Navy Atlantique-2s were deployed to act as ground-strike aircraft during
Operation Serval over Northern
Mali; a number of laser-guided
GBU-12 bombs were dropped by the Atlantiques against Malian jihadist militants seeking to overthrow the Malian government. During the deployment, the Atlantiques also served as
Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, being able to provide a sustained presence unlike alternatives such as the
EADS Harfang unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In 2015, Atlantique-2s was deployed to Iraq at the beginning of
Opération Chammal against
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces, initially performing
ISTAR and forward air control missions. On 19 August 2015, an Atlantique-2 flew a mission with two
Mirage 2000s and dropped a GBU-12 on a command and control building, its first strike mission of the operation. As French military operations expanded into Syria in September 2015, the long range of the Atlantiques from their base in the UAE was utilised when undertaking reconnaissance operations instead of shorter range aircraft such as the
Dassault Rafale. On 15 January 2025, two Atlantique 2 aircraft landed in Indonesia as part of mission
Clemenceau 25 before exercise La Perouse 2025 after logistical stop overs in Greece, UAE and India (10 Jan). The aircraft traversed 7800 nautical miles and 30 flight hours to complement the
Carrier Strike Group centered on
Charles de Gaulle. A French Navy Atlantique participated at the
International Fleet Review 2026 held at
Visakapatanam in
India. ==Variants==