During the French national festivities on 14 July, celebrating the turning point in the revolution of 1789 and the foundation of its current republic, all eyes were focussed at the skies over Paris. Traditionally, the French armoured forces execute a major parade in and over the countries capital commemorating “14 Juillet” or Bastille Day. The large flight display over Paris’ main street ‘The Champs Elysees’ in front of the French President, takes some precise planning to organise all aircraft and helicopters in various formations at the right time in a perfect orchestrated flyby. One of the main centres for the execution of the flight parade is at Evreux “Base Aérienne” (BA) Air Force Base, located some 100 km west of Paris. At Evreux, also marked as BA 105, the majority of fighter aircraft of L’Armée de l’Air (French Air Force) gather some days ahead and repeatedly conduct various rehearsals for all the formations. Not all participants use Evreux, as the navy flies straight from their home bases, also like tanker and transport aircraft do. The performing helicopters are using Villacoublay BA 107 near Versailles in the outskirts of Paris as their gather point. The more than 30 jets at Evreux, including Mirage 2000s from Luxeuil (M2000-5F), Nancy (M2000D), Orange (M2000B and C), and Dassault Rafale B and Cs from Mont-de-Marsan and Saint Dizier, were lined up in a row at the taxi track parallel to the runway.
Viewed by L’Armée de l’Air employee family members, the aircraft took off in groups to join formations with various tankers and transport aircraft already in airborne in the direct vicinity of the base to await further clearance to head for Paris. Soon they were joined by a large formation of Navy’s Rafales along with a Hawkeye E-2C. In previous editions of the 14 Juillet Air Parade, the French invited other countries’ aircraft to join the flyby, underlining strong bonds of friend- and partnerships. Due to the Covid-19 situation, 2021’s edition witnessed only French aircraft participating. In that perspective, it was interesting to see a first appearance of a Beech 350ER/ASLR which was recently delivered to special intelligence unit EEA01.054 “Dunkerque” at Evreux. The unit, which will phase out its C-160 “Gabriel” aircraft, will reach a total of three Beech 350s “Vador” (Vecteur aéroporté de désignation, d’observation et de reconnaissance/airborne vector for designation, observation and reconnaissance) by 2023. The Vador aircraft are initially delivered by manufacturer Beech to the French Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA)/general armament department, to receive its special intel and reconnaissance gathering equipment from Sabena Technics and Thalès.
After experimental testing of its equipment by Centre d’Expertise Aérienne Militaire (CEAM)/Military Air Expertise Centre, the Beech 350s will be inducted to its operational support. Another interesting highlight was the participation of aircraft from the DGA Essais en Vol (DGA-EV)/DGA Flight Test unit based at Cazaux BA 120, close to Bordeaux. The unit was delegated at Evreux by 3 Alpha Jets and 2 types of Mirage 2000s, of which 2 Alpha Jets and 1 Mirage participated in the parade, while the others were kept as air spares. These DGA-EV aircraft are used as test bed for new equipment, armament and update projects, or act as chase plane to observe other aircraft in their test flights. The aircraft of the unit, which also has a branch at air base Istres-Le Tubé BA 125, are due to their test flight programmes normally very rarely seen outside their home base. Therefore, their public display in the Paris parade was a unique event.
To stress their test function in the air force, the appearance of the aircraft differs from the operational aircraft in their front line units. For example, the DGA Alpha Jets had day glow coloured wing tanks and the DGA-EV Mirage 2000s had a dull grey colour scheme applied which is not common for the others. The Mirage which joint the parade, a B model, is known as a testbed for the Rafale radar, including additional sensors above and beneath the nose cone and some extra antennas. The aircraft flies with a centreline pod variant. The other Mirage, a 2000C model, had its main fuselage colour in glossy blue and was furthermore attached with 60 years DGA-EV anniversary marks, a 2021 milestone for the unit. For the anniversary, all aircraft received a 60 year celebration badge on their tail. The current DGA-EV unit was previously known as Centre Essais en Vol (CEV)/Flight Test Centre and was based at air base Bretigny BA 217, until closure in 2009. After the air parade over in Paris, most aircraft flew straight and returned to their home bases throughout the country. A few days later, on 16 July, Evreux air base received the first C-130J Hercules aircraft for the newly joined German-French transport squadron.
Text and photos by Peter ten Berg
