A few days ago the French Ministry of the Armed Forces announced the order of the first two Falcon Archangels for the Air Force. If the scheduled renewal of the canonical C-160 Gabriel is objectively good news for our ROEM capabilities, their design reflects an obsolete, at the very least incomplete, approach of the political sphere in the face of the new challenges of the "war."
Resulting from the collaboration of Dassault for the vector (Falcon 8X) and Thalès for its payload: CUGE (Universal Electronic Warfare Capability) the first two copies (out of three) of the Falcon ARCHANGE [efn_note] “Payload Intelligence Aircraft of New Generation. [/efn_note] have been ordered for operational service between 2025 and 2030. They will replace the very aging C-160 Gabriel, already old in 1991 during the second Gulf War. The Falcon Archangel will be able to carry eight personnel and three crew members. Benefiting from a maximum speed of Mach 0,90, a range of 12 km and a ceiling of 000 meters, it offers aeronautical capacities far superior to the Gabriel even if its lack of bunkers will partly limit the load. payloads.
However its CUGE which offers large capacities Elint, Sigint et Comint backed by Artificial Intelligence technologies and multi-polarization antennas should compensate for this loss. The lack of detail on the technology does not allow us to say whether the Archangel will be able to use its capabilities at a safe distance (stand off) because its aeronautical characteristics place it de facto in the specter of a solid anti-aircraft defense as implemented by Russia or China. Consequently, if this vector is intended to be used in addition to the CERES satellite system in the targeting process and in GEOINT mapping, the question of its survivability in a non-permissive theater of operation nevertheless arises.
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