France's air force has a new aircraft type, and it started life as a business jet. Archange is a Dassault Falcon 8X, the three-engined long-range model, modified by Dassault Aviation to carry a Thales mission system called CUGE. The first aircraft reached its home base at Évreux in Normandy in October 2026, and it is now in trials before it enters service.

I have no photograph of Archange itself; the pictures show the standard Falcon 8X it is built on.

What Archange is

The name is an acronym: Avions de Renseignement à CHArge utile de Nouvelle GEnération, roughly "next-generation payload intelligence aircraft". AeroTime and AIN both give it in full. The programme is for three aircraft, and the first, registered F-ZJFM according to AIN and The Aviationist, is the one now at Évreux.

CUGE stands for Capacité Universelle de Guerre Électronique, which The Aviationist translates as Universal Electronic Warfare Capability. The air force describes its role as signals intelligence, and I am keeping to that.

The aircraft underneath

The Falcon 8X is a long-range business jet with three Pratt & Whitney Canada PW307D engines. Dassault quotes a range of 6,450 nautical miles, about 11,945 km, with eight passengers. It is a stretched development of the Falcon 7X, and according to Wikipedia the prototype first flew from Bordeaux-Mérignac on 6 February 2015, with the first delivery in October 2016. Those two dates rest on Wikipedia alone.

Archange first flew in July 2025 from the same Bordeaux-Mérignac site. AeroTime and The Aviationist give 25 July.

What it replaces

Archange succeeds the Transall C-160G Gabriel. The Transall C-160 is a twin-turboprop transport that first flew in 1963, and the Gabriel was its signals intelligence version, which the French air force introduced in 1989. Two aircraft were converted. AIN says they were delivered to the squadron in 1989 and retired in 2022, and AeroTime also gives 2022.

Base, unit and trials

The aircraft is assigned to Escadron électronique aéroporté 5/64 "Dunkerque" at Base Aérienne 105, Évreux. All three reports agree on that. Before it enters service it is in what AeroTime calls a technical and operational experimentation phase led by the CEAM, the military air expertise centre. A CEAM team has taken part in loading trials and tests of the operational equipment, working with the DGA flight-test arm, Dassault and Thales.

Where the sources differ

The dates are the messy part, so I have used "October 2026" for the arrival.

  • 7 October: the first aircraft landed at Évreux (AeroTime, citing the French armed forces ministry, and The Aviationist).
  • 8 October: the aircraft and its mission system were presented to the air force's chief of staff and other officials (AeroTime and AIN).
  • 23 October: the air force announced it (The Aviationist). AIN reports Dassault announcing the arrival on 27 October.

The delivery schedule differs too. AeroTime says the ministry now expects all three aircraft and three ground systems by 2028 to 2029, later than first planned. The Aviationist says by 2030. And the number ordered is less simple than "three": AeroTime says a firm contract covers the first two aircraft, while the programme as a whole covers three. AIN gives the same split, a 2019 contract for two and a programme of three.

What happens next

The first aircraft carries on with its CEAM trials at Évreux. Per AeroTime, the ministry expects all three by 2028 to 2029.

The photographs

Both show a standard Falcon 8X, not Archange. One is the prototype, F-WWQA, at the Paris Air Show in 2017, by Marie-Lan Nguyen. The other is M-LEAD arriving at Dhaka in March 2024, by Tanvir Hasanat. Both are licensed CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

On the radar clips: a Falcon 8X, N2239X, did cross my desk on 27 September 2026 at 7,250 ft, and I have used it in the video as a stand-in for the type. It is not the Archange.

Sources

  • AeroTime, "France's first Falcon 8X Archange spy jet enters military testing", 30 October 2026: https://aerotime.aero/articles/france-falcon-8x-archange-spy-jet-evreux
  • The Aviationist, "France's Archange SIGINT aircraft arrives at Evreux", 25 October 2026: https://theaviationist.com/2026/10/25/frances-archange-sigint-aircraft-arrives-at-evreux/
  • AIN, "Archangel ascends: special missions Falcon 8X delivered", 28 October 2026: https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2026-10-28/archangel-ascends-special-missions-falcon-8x-delivered
  • Dassault Falcon, Falcon 8X specifications: https://www.dassaultfalcon.com/aircraft/falcon-8x/
  • Wikipedia, "Dassault Falcon 8X" and "Transall C-160": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Falcon_8X
  • Photographs: Marie-Lan Nguyen (File:Dassault Falcon 8X F-WWQA Bourget 2017 n3.jpg) and Tanvir Hasanat (File:Dassault Falcon 8X arriving Dhaka.jpg), both CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons