Breguet Atlantic The Breguet Br . 1150 Atlantic is a long - range maritime patrol aircraft designed and manufactured by Breguet Aviation . Introduced to service in 1965 , it has been operated by several NATO countries , commonly performing maritime roles such as reconnaissance and anti - submarine warfare . The Atlantic is also capable of carrying air - to - ground missiles , and some German Navy aircraft were also equipped to perform ELINT duties . An updated version , the Atlantique 2 or ATL2 , was produced by Dassault Aviation for the French Navy in the 1980s . Design and development . In 1958 NATO produced a specification for a long - range maritime patrol aircraft to replace the Lockheed Neptune , with Breguet ' s design , the Br 1150 , chosen as the winner of the competition at the end of the year . A multi - national consortium , " Société d ' Étude et de Construction de Breguet Atlantic " ( SECBAT ) was set up to develop and build the Atlantic . The first prototype made its maiden flight at Toulouse on 21 October 1961 , with the second prototype flying on 25 February 1962 , followed by two pre - production aircraft with a longer fuselage in February 1963 and September 1964 . The Atlantic is a twin - engined , mid - winged monoplane with a " double - bubble " fuselage , with the upper lobe comprising a pressurised crew compartment , and the lower lobe housing a 9 m ( 27 ft 6 in ) long weapons bay , with sonobuoy tubes aft of the weapons bay . A radar scanner is housed in a retractable underfuselage radome , while a magnetic anomaly detector is housed in a tail boom . Power is by two Rolls - Royce Tyne turboprop engines . The Breguet Br . 1150 Atlantic has been designed for its purpose , instead of refitting or modifying existing designs . Though the primary mission of the " Atlantic " is anti - submarine and anti - surface warfare , its secondary role includes search and rescue , mine laying and detection , and long - range maritime surveillance . The Atlantic can carry either eight guided ASW torpedo es such as Mk 46 Torpedo or 12 depth charges or two AM . 39 Exocet anti - ship missiles in its internal bomb bay . German Atlantics usually carried Mk 46s only and flew unarmed during the last years of their service . An initial order for 60 Atlantics , 40 for France and 20 for Germany , was placed in 1963 , with deliveries starting in 1965 and continuing to 1968 . The production line had shut down by the time that the Netherlands placed an order for nine Atlantics and Italy ordered 18 . Aircraft from this second production batch were delivered from 1972 to 1974 . In 1978 , the French Government authorised development of a new , updated version of the Atlantic , the " Atlantic Nouvelle Generation " ( later known as the Atlantique 2 when orders from other nations did not occur ) . While airframe and engines of the new aircraft changed little , other equipment and avionics were considerably revised , with a new radar , a new sonar processor and tactical computer , with a FLIR turret under the nose . The ability to carry Exocet missiles was also added . Two prototype Atlantique 2s were produced by converting existing Atlantics , with the first flying on 8 May 1981 , with production being authorised on 24 May 1984 . Deliveries started in 1989 , with 28 eventually built , from an original requirement for 42 . By 2012 they had been rebranded as the ATL2 and France had 22 in service . 18 are to be upgraded in two stages , Phase I addressing obsolescence issues and Phase II adding new capabilities . There is a separate project to integrate the new MU90 Impact torpedo . An Atlantique 3 was proposed in 1995 for the British competition won by the Nimrod MRA4 . It would have had a two - man glass cockpit , uprated AE2100H turboprops and avionics upgrades . Operational history . The Royal Netherlands Navy lost three Atlantics out of nine aircraft in a series of failures over the Atlantic Ocean , resulting in the grounding of the type in 1981 and its eventual replacement by the P - 3 Orion . The German " Marineflieger " operated their fleet from 1963 to 2005 , losing one in an accident . The German Atlantics were also replaced by former Dutch P - 3 Orions . In 1999 , a Pakistan Navy Atlantic was shot down by Indian Air Force MiG - 21 s after they failed to force it to land at an Indian base , raising tensions in the region , in what was dubbed the Atlantique Incident . Disobeying instructions from the MiG pilots , the Atlantic maneuvered to escape from them and was shot down by a heat - seeking air - to - air missile over the Rann of Kutch region . Several German Atlantics have been donated to museums , including the " Luftwaffenmuseum " and the Dutch Air Force Museum , Soesterberg , Netherlands . French Atlantics flew search flights during efforts to find the location of the crashed Air France Flight 447 . French Navy Atlantique - 2s were employed as ground - strike aircraft during Operation Serval over Northern Mali in January 2013 ; a number of laser - guided GBU - 12 bombs were dropped by the Atlantiques against Malian djihadist seeking to overthrow the Malian government .