Arrival and military trials
Dassault confirmed the aircraft's arrival on October 27. According to The Aviationist, the jet first landed at Évreux, also known as BA 105, on October 7, 2026, though the service did not publicly announce that milestone until October 23. The aircraft, registered F-ZJFM, was presented to the service on October 8.
France's military air expertise center, CEAM, will conduct the trials before the aircraft begins operational duties. The handover follows the first flight from Dassault Aviation's Bordeaux-Mérignac facility, which the French defense procurement agency, DGA, announced on July 28.
A delayed successor to the Gabriel
France plans to acquire three modified Falcon 8Xs under Archange, short for Avions de Renseignement à CHArge utile de Nouvelle GÉnération. They will replace the service's two Transall C-160G Gabriel intelligence aircraft, which joined the Dunkerque squadron in 1989.
The Gabriels were retired prematurely in May 2022, leaving a gap in France's dedicated airborne signals-intelligence capability, The Aviationist reports. Since then, France has used a combination of interim assets that only partially covers the former aircraft's role: a Saab 340 leased through the SOLAR contract, Mirage 2000D RMV aircraft equipped with ASTAC pods, Beechcraft 350 ALSR aircraft, and CERES electromagnetic-intelligence satellites. The leased Saab, in particular, does not fully reproduce the Gabriel's capabilities.
The DGA's 2019 contract tasked Dassault and its principal electronics partner, Thales, with fitting two Falcon 8Xs with the Thales-developed Universal Electronic Warfare Capability, or CUGE, signals intelligence suite. The agency initially expected the system to achieve initial operational capability in 2025.
Archange has slipped by several years. In Senate testimony reported by The Aviationist, French Chief of Defence Staff General Fabien Mandon attributed the delay in completing the first airframe to Dassault's "difficulty in fitting an electronic computing bay into an aircraft which has limited space."
Sensors and flight capabilities
The French Air and Space Force says Archange will gather and analyze adversaries' electromagnetic emissions to better understand their deployments and operating environment. Its CUGE suite sits in a large ventral fairing beneath the aircraft's chin, according to The Aviationist.
Thales says CUGE combines multi-polarization antennas with artificial intelligence that automates data processing. The system is designed to detect, analyze and classify communications and radar emissions simultaneously.
According to AeroTime, the Falcon 8X platform is designed for operation at altitudes of up to 15,500 meters (50,000 feet) and speeds approaching Mach 0.9. It offers two to three times the range and endurance of the C-160 Gabriel it replaces.
