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In 1987, a single Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Atlanique was operated by France as an airborne headquarters during Opération Épervier, the French intervention against Libyan military units which had been deployed into in neighbouring Chad. Communications intercepted by the Atlantique were immediately decoded and translated before being used to conduct strikes upon Libyan forces with greater accurancy. The German Marineflieger operated a fleet of Atlantics between 1963 and 2005. A number of these aircraft were modified for Signals Intelligence work and were based at Nordholz Air Base. During the Cold War, they commonly flew across the Baltic Sea and along the border with East Germany; these flight often had American and British intelligence personnel on board in addition to their German crews. During the 1990s, Germany deployed SIGINT Atlantics to observe the United Nations embargo of Yugoslavia and for reconnaissance flights during the Kosovo War in 1999. In 1992, Germany was considering replacing its Atlantics in the maritime patrol role, the modernised Atlantic-2 was considered to be a frontrunner to be the replacement. In 1996, the planned procurement of a replacement were delayed in favour of a life extension program to enable to the Atlantic fleet to continue in service for a further decade. Germany ultimately elected to replace their Atlantics with a number of secondhand Dutch P-3 Orions. Several German Atlantics have been donated to museums, including the Luftwaffenmuseum and the Dutch Air Force Museum, Soesterberg, Netherlands. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Atlantic competed with the P-3 Orion to be selected as the Royal Netherlands Navy's next anti-submarine aircraft. The selection process, during which Lockheed Corporation were alleged to have engaged in multiple incidents of bribery, ultimately chose the Atlantic. Fewer Atlantics were procured than originally planned however; and a total of three Atlantics out of the Netherland's nine-strong fleet were lost through a series of failures during missions over the Atlantic Ocean. These losses resulted in the grounding of the type in 1981 and contributed to its eventual replacement by the P-3 Orion. During NATO's intervention in the 1999 Kosovo War, French Atlantics performed overflying surveillance flights of the combat area, flights within Serbian airspace were conducted by unarmed aircraft. In 1973, in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Pakistan Navy opted to procure three Atlantics from France. In 1999, a Pakistan Navy Atlantic inadvertently flew into Indian airspace while probing Indian air defenses, it was intercepted and shot down by Indian Air Force MiG-21s after the Atlantic ignored instructions and attempts to force it to land at an Indian base; the event become known as the Atlantique Incident. After 36 years of service, Pakistan's remaining Atlantics were formally retired in September 2012, following the arrival of addition P-3 Orions to replace them. In 2009, a number of French Atlantics were dispatched to Dakar, Senegal, to participate in a multinational search effort to locate the crashed Air France Flight 447. In January 2013, French Navy Atlantique-2s were deployed to act as ground-strike aircraft during Operation Serval over Northern Mali; a number of laser-guided GBU-12 bombs were dropped by the Atlantiques against Malian jihadist militants seeking to overthrow the Malian government. During the deployment, the Atlantique also served as an Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform, being able to provide a sustained presence unlike alternatives such as the EADS Harfang unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In 2015, Atlantique-2s was deployed to Iraq at the beginning of Opération Chammal against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces, initially performing ISTAR and forward air control missions. On 19 August 2015, an Atlantique-2 flew a mission with two Mirage 2000s and dropped a GBU-12 on a command and control building, its first strike mission of the operation. As French military operations expanded into Syria in September 2015, the long range of the Atlantique may prove to be a beneficial factor when performing ground attack operations over shorter range aircraft such as the Dassault Rafale.
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