https://www.defensenews.com/global/e...craft-program/
France seeds its own maritime-patrol aircraft program
STUTTGART, Germany — France is forging ahead to study options for a future maritime patrol aircraft platform, while presumably still partnering with neighbor Germany on a joint program with the same goal announced nearly six years ago.
The French military procurement agency Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) announced Jan. 12 that it awarded two contracts for industry heavies Airbus Defence & Space and Dassault Aviation to examine potential replacements for its current maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) fleet.
The 18-month studies, awarded in late December and each worth €10.9 million (U.S. $11.80 million), will focus on the suitability of Airbus’ A320neo and Dassault’s Falcon 10X platforms to replace France’s decades-old Atlantique ATL2 MPAs. The DGA hopes to launch a procurement program by 2026 and field a future maritime patrol aircraft – or “Patmar” as the agency calls it, for the French “système de patrouille maritime du futur” – by the 2030s.
The announcement places yet another question mark over the status of the Maritime Airborne Warfare System (MAWS) effort, launched by France and Germany in 2017 with the goal of developing a European-designed manned aircraft for maritime patrol missions, to fly by 2035…..