This morning we traced a French Air Force Transall C-160G Gabriel (reg. F216) at work over eastern Romania. the electronic warfare and SIGINT version of the famous C-160 transport aircraft.
Interestingly, while last week the French Air Force finally bade farewell to the C-160 as a transport aircraft, the electronic warfare version is still in service awaiting its successor
Currently, the Armée de l’Air (French Air Force) operates two C-160G Gabriel aircraft assigned to the Airborne Squadron 54 “Dunkirk”.
Three CUGE strategic intelligence aircraft (based on Falcon 2000) will replace the two Transall C-160 Gabriel starting from 2025
C-160G Gabriel is still in flight today as you traced but she will not be replace by Falcon 2000 but by Falcon 8X basis equipped with “CUGE” and will be named “Archange” operational around 2025.