France has had a gap in its electronic ears since 2022, and a business jet with an unusual bulge under its nose is about to close it. The first Dassault Falcon 8X Archange, the French Air and Space Force's new strategic signals-intelligence aircraft, has landed at its future home, Air Base 105 Évreux-Fauville in Normandy.
The aircraft made its first landing at Évreux on 7 October 2026 and was presented there the next day to the air force chief of staff. The service made the arrival public on 23 October, and the Ministry of the Armed Forces has now confirmed that military evaluation has begun. It is the moment the programme stops being an industrial project and starts becoming an air force capability.
Quick Facts
- Aircraft: Dassault Falcon 8X Archange (three-engined business jet), Thales CUGE SIGINT payload
- First flight: 25 July 2025, Bordeaux-Mérignac
- First landing at Évreux: 7 October 2026 (made public 23 October)
- Registration seen: F-ZJFM
- Fleet: Three aircraft and ground systems planned; firm contract for the first two
- Unit: Escadron électronique aéroporté 5/64 "Dunkerque" (formerly 1/54), BA 105 Évreux-Fauville
- Replaces: Two Transall C-160G Gabriel, retired May 2022
- Status: CEAM evaluation; delivery to forces expected around 2028-2029
A spy plane built on a business jet
Archange, short for Avions de Renseignement à CHArge utile de Nouvelle GEnération, pairs a modified Falcon 8X with Thales's CUGE electronic intelligence system. According to Thales, a single CUGE sensor intercepts radio communications and radar emissions at the same time, using multi-polarisation antennas and AI-assisted automatic processing. Dassault handles the airframe modification, integration and certification; the DGA, France's procurement agency, runs the programme.
The job, as the air force describes it, is to build and broadcast the adversary's electronic order of battle in real time: where the radars are, what they are, what they are saying. That picture feeds mission planning, updates the electronic warfare libraries carried by fighters such as the Rafale and helps protect aircraft flying into defended airspace.
Replacing the Gabriel
Archange replaces the Transall C-160G Gabriel, the twin-turboprop SIGINT aircraft flown for decades by the Dunkerque electronic warfare squadron. France retired its last two Gabriels in May 2022, several years earlier than planned, and has bridged the gap with a leased Saab 340. The new aircraft is also meant to restore strategic collection capacity lost when the DC-8 SARIGuE was retired in 2004 without a successor.
The squadron that will fly Archange has itself changed name. Under a French air staff decision, the Escadron électronique aéroporté "Dunkerque" was renumbered from 1/54 to 5/64 on 1 January 2026. It supports the current evaluation, which is led by the air force's test centre, the CEAM, together with DGA flight test, Dassault and Thales.
Late, but arriving
The programme was launched in November 2019 and the production contract went to Thales and Dassault on 30 December that year, firmly covering the first two aircraft of three planned. The original plan foresaw service entry from 2025. The Ministry of the Armed Forces now speaks of delivery to the forces around 2028-2029.
The first Archange flew from Dassault's Mérignac site on 25 July 2025, still in factory primer, an event the then Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced himself. A year and a bit later, now in air force colours and wearing Dunkerque squadron markings, it is at Évreux. The evaluation now under way will decide how quickly France gets its ears back.
The predecessor bows out: a Transall C-160G Gabriel arrives at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace at Le Bourget.
Sources: Ministère des Armées / Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace, The Aviationist, Opex360, Thales, Defence Industry Europe
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