French Naval Aviation

The flight personnel of the French Navy falls into three categories: fighter aviation, fixed-wing aviation and helicopter aviation.

Operationally the French Naval Aviation has four components:

• Embarqued Air Group (Le Groupe aérien embarqué) of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle: Rafale M, E-2C Hawkeye
• Naval Patrol and Maritime Surveillance Aviation (l'Aviation de patrouille et de surveillance maritime): Atlantique 2, Falcon 50, Falcon 200
• Shipborne and Shore-based Helicopters (Les hélicoptères embarqués et basés à terre): Dauphin, Panther, Caïman Marine
• Support Aviation (l'Aviation de soutien): Falcon 10, EMB-121 Xingu, SR20, Cap-10, Dauphin, EC120 Colibri

Operational squadrons are known as Flottilles and normally consist of 12 aircraft :

• 1F to 10F are carrier based anti-submarine squadrons
• 11F to 20F are fighter and attack squadrons
• 21F to 30F are maritime patrol squadrons
• 31F to 39F are helicopter squadrons

Shore-based training and transport squadrons are known as Escadrilles de Servitude :

• 1S to 19S are communications squadrons
• 20S to 29S are helicopters squadrons
• 50S to 59S are training squadrons

Squadron	Insignia	Type	Aircraft	Base	Role	Notes
Embarked Air Group (Le Groupe aérien embarqué)[5]
4F		Fixed wing	E-2C Hawkeye	Lann Bihoué	Carrier airborne early warning	[6]
11F		Fixed wing	Rafale M	Landivisiau	Strike fighter	[7]
12F		Fixed wing	Rafale M	Landivisiau	Strike fighter	[8]
17F		Fixed wing	Rafale M	Landivisiau	Strike fighter	[9] Ended conversion to Rafale M in June 2016.
		Rotary	Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin	Hyères	Plane guard	Not part of the GAE. Charles de Gaulle set sail on cruises with two Dauphin helicopters from 35F.
Naval Patrol and Maritime Surveillance Aviation (l'Aviation de patrouille et de surveillance maritime)[10]
21F		Fixed wing	Atlantique 2	Lann Bihoué	Anti-submarine warfare / Naval patrol	[11] Detachments at Dakar and Djibouti.
23F		Fixed wing	Atlantique 2	Lann Bihoué	Anti-submarine warfare / Naval patrol	[12]
24F		Fixed wing	Falcon 50 M	Lann Bihoué	Maritime surveillance / Search and rescue	[13]
25F		Fixed wing	Falcon 200 Guardian	GAM Faa'a	Maritime surveillance / Search and rescue	[14] Detachment at Nouméa.
Shipborne and Shore-based Helicopters (Les hélicoptères embarqués et basés à terre)
31F		Rotary	NH90 Caïman	Hyères	Search and rescue	[15]
32F		Rotary	Airbus Helicopters H160M Guépard	Lanvéoc		Previously used SA321G Super Frelon.[16]
33F		Rotary	NH90 Caïman	Lanvéoc	Anti-submarine warfare / Search and rescue	[17]
34F		Rotary	Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin/NH90 Caïman	Lanvéoc	Anti-submarine warfare	Disbanded 4 September 2020. Planned to re-activate in 2021[18] operating leased SA365M3 Dauphins from Heli-Union and NHV as temporary equipment.[16] To convert to NH90 Caïman.[19]
35F		Rotary	Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin SPI	Hyères	Search and rescue	Detachments at La Rochelle, Le Touquet-Paris-Plage[20] and Faa'a. Uses additional leased AS365N3 from Heli-Union.[16]
36F		Rotary	Eurocopter AS565 Panther	Hyères	Small ship flights	[21]
Support Aviation (l'Aviation de soutien)
10S		Rotary/ Fixed wing/UAV	Schiebel S-100 Serval	Hyères	Experimental	[22]Aviation and airborne weapons research and development, evaluation at several locations.
22S		Rotary	Dauphin, EC120 Colibri	Lanvéoc	Rotary operational training / Liaison
28F		Fixed wing	Embraer Xingu	Lann Bihoué	Naval patrol and maritime surveillance operational training / Utility / Liaison	[23]
50S		Fixed wing	SR20 and CAP-10	Lanvéoc	Elementary flying training	[22]
57S		Fixed wing	Falcon 10 M	Landivisiau	Combat aviation operational training	[24]

• Aérospatiale Alouette II
• Aérospatiale Super Frelon
• Bell 47
• LeO C-30
• Lynx Mk.4(FN)[26]
• Piasecki H-21C
• Piasecki HUP-2
• Sikorsky H-51
• Sikorsky S-55
• Sikorsky S-58
• Sud-Aviation HSS-1