French Transall farewell tour
The Armée de l'Air (AdlA, French Air Force) took the mighty C-160 Transall for the very last time to Africa. The AdlA used C-160R serial R211/64-GK (construction number 214) of escadre de transport 64 (ET64) based at Base Aerienne Evreux (BA105) for their last C-160 overseas operations. The aircraft flew among other locations in Central and West Africa to Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) (8-11 August 2020) during its African farewell tour.
On 31 July 2020, the ongoing AdlA C-160 deployments to Africa officially ended. On that date, an AdlA C-130J Hercules arrived at BAP Niamey (Niger) to take over responsibility for the detachment as part of the Group Transport Opérationnel (GTO). From now on, one C-130J Hercules will be permanently based with the GTO in support of the Barkhane mission in Africa.
The Transall unit, ET02.064 "Anjou", disbanded on 31 August 2020. It will reform on a later date as an A400 unit. The unit will transfer three of its C-160Rs to EEA01.054 "Dunkerque", where they will be used as training aircraft *).
*) News report 25 August 2020: First VADOR for Armée de l'Air
Photos: AdlA/EMA R211 at Abidjan, arrival of C-130J at Niamey (AdlA/EMA) and Chad deployment by Instagram Stephan_deBruijn